NAREATIVE OP MR. CARRON. 167 



progress, owing' to the great labour of clearing-, and 

 the numerous steep ascents we met with. We 

 fortunately found water in a low place, and with 

 difficulty lig-hted a fire, everything- being- saturated 

 with rain. We then laid down and endeavoured to 

 sleep, but were unable to do so from the number of 

 small leeches which attacked us. I was oblig-ed to 

 g'et up several times in the night, and in the 

 morning- I found myself covered with blood. 



Auff. 9th. — We started at daylight, although it 

 was raining, and continued to do so all day ; about 

 six o'clock in the evening- we reached a small river, 

 running rapidly over rocks, and deep in some places. 

 Its course was north-easterly, but it turned north, a 

 little below where we first came upon it. We 

 camped by the side of it, it being- too late to cross, 

 althoug-h there was open forest g-round on the other 

 side. The open ground on the coast side of the 

 range was considerably lower than that on the other, 

 the highest part of our track being, according to 

 Mr. Kennedy's barometrical observations, upwards of 

 two thousand feet above the level of the sea. The 

 soil ^vas a strong loam of a dark colour, o^ving to 

 the admixture of a great deal of decomposed vege- 

 table matter ; rock projected in many places, and in 

 those parts where the rocks ^vere near the surface, 

 Callitris (c3^press pine) grew. In the deeper soil 

 ^vere large trees of the g-enera Castanospcrmum, 

 Lophostemon, and Ccdrcla, ming-led with Achras 

 Aiistralis, Calamits (climbing- palm), Seaforthia, 



