86 



COUNTRY NORTH OF RIVER. 



not, how long we should have to wait for the sea to 

 go down on the bar by which we entered, sufficiently 

 to enable us to pull across it. While bathing we 

 saw three of our friends on the south side of the 

 river, and one man came down on the north bank, 

 and watched us for some time. When we got under 

 weigh we pointed down the river, and our three 

 friends proceeded in that direction, but we soon lost 

 sight of them, and did not see them again. When 

 we reached the cliff on the north bank of the river, 

 I landed, and walked down some distance through 

 the bush. The soil was principally sand, very 

 uneven, full of holes and hollows and dry water- 

 courses, as if very subject to inundation. It was 

 covered principally with sedges or coarse grass, but 

 the timber overhead was rather fine and lofty, close 

 and leafy, with considerable variety of wood. There 

 were many pigeons and parrots, but I did not suc- 

 ceed in getting a shot at any of them, and shortly 

 returned by a native path to the boat. We then 

 crossed the river, and breakfasted at the edge of a 

 large plot of grass, in which were many pools of 

 fresh water, and whiled away the time till the 

 tide should turn by looking for wild fowl, which 

 however we did not succeed in finding. At 11 a.m. 

 it being high water, we manned all six oars, and set 

 off down the river. On getting down to the branch 

 that led away to the south, we came on three gins, 

 fishing at a weir that stretched across it made of 

 sticks. They were up to their middles in water, 



