60 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



apprehended would be most difficult to 

 pass. We encamped at sunset completely 

 jaded with toil. Our distance made good 

 this day was twelve miles and a quarter. 



The labours of the 16th commenced at 

 half-past five, and for some time the diffi- 

 culty of getting the boats over the rapids 

 was equal to what we experienced the day 

 before. Having passed a small brook, 

 however, termed Half-way Creek, the river 

 became deeper, and although rapid, it 

 was smooth enough to be named by our 

 Orkney boatmen Still-water. We were 

 further relieved by the Company's clerks 

 consenting to take a few boxes of our stores 

 into their boats. Still we made only eleven 

 miles in the course of the day. 



The banks of Hill River are higher, and 

 have a more broken outline, than those of 

 Steel or Hayes' Rivers. The cliffs of allu- 

 vial clay rose in some places to the height 

 of eighty or ninety feet above the stream, 

 and were surmounted by hills about two 

 hundred feet high, but the thickness of the 



