OUR COAL AXD COAL PORTS. 129 



our difficult march, or rather our floundering through a wilderness. 

 The difficulties of this walking expedition are almost beyond des- 

 cription, through ever constant entanglements of untrodden scrub 

 and vines ; over loose leafsoil, logs, stones, and every conceivable 

 obstruction inherent to a thick, wild, and vmtenanted country ; 

 annoyed by bush leeches and ticks, our feet wet through all day, 

 our clothes in ribbons — these and many other troubles are what 

 we had to contend with. Resting from time to time to make a 

 fresh start, we toiled on up the meandering and fine brook. 



As we went away from all action of tidal or brackish waters 

 we came into the most gorgeous tropical vegetation, existing 

 more or less on both sides of the creek. The magnificence of 

 this vegetation requires to be seen to have the effect of its 

 beauties conveyed to the mind. The hilly slopes on the sides of 

 the running streams covered wdth various kinds of palms, fern 

 trees, immense trees of every description, and all in such places 

 having rich green leaves, covered with creepers and with flexible 

 vines varying in all sizes up to that of the wrist, and some 

 hanging down perhaps fifty feet or more; whilst underneath every 

 decaying dead log, and every living root projecting everywhere 

 over-ground, was covered with a perfect coating of thick green 

 moss ; all gave a charm to the picture which seemed to be alone 

 a sufficient compensation for the fatigue we had to endure. We 

 pushed on as hard as we could up stream u.nder a lively hope to 

 reach the most southern dwelling of the free selectors, who live 

 on the creek near Bulgo. 



The weather was rainy, cold, and unpropitious for the prospect 

 of a night's lodging on damp ground by the side of a burning 

 log. But our energies failed to gain the desired object. The 

 country, if anything, became richer and denser in vegetation — 

 the branch creeks deeper and more numerous, some of which 

 had to be traversed by logs which, fortunately for us, bridged 

 them. As we progressed on and on we found the timber, both 

 live and dead, to be larger and larger ; large dead trees had to 

 be constantly stepped over, straddled over, or climbed over, in 

 spite of their being covered with from one to two inches of rich, 

 cold, and wet moss. At 6 o'clock in the evening we agreed that, 

 as we could not have progressed much over a quarter of a mile 

 in the last hour, we had had enough of it for one day, and since 

 4 o'clock in the morning ; so we gave up all hopes of reaching 

 the first house, and searched for lodgings away from the rich and 

 green jungle. Most fortunately we obtained very welcome 

 homes, under the certain prospect of a wet night, by finding two 

 immense " turpentine" trees near each other, which towered a 

 prodigious height over us ; whilst the bottoms of these two trees 

 had been hollowed out by decay and by fire in such a manner as 

 to afi"ord us two dry resting-places for the night. A heap of 



