TRAVELS IN 
380 
Next day we travelled about twenty miles far- 
ther, eroding two confide rable creeks named Great 
and Little Tobofbchte; and at evening encamped 
clofe by a beautiful large brook called Sweet Wa- 
ter, the glittering waving flood paffing along active- 
ly over a bed of pebbles and gravel. The territory 
through which we paffed from the banks of the 
Oakmulge to this place, exhibited a delightful di- 
yerfified rural fce'ne, and promifes a happy, fruitful 
and falubrious region, when cultivated by induftri- 
ous inhabitants ; generally ridges of low dwelling 
hills and plains fupporting grand forefts, vafe Cane 
meadows, favannas and verdant lawns. 
I obferved here a very fmgular and beautiful 
fhrub, which I fuppofe is a fpecies of Hydrangia 
(H. quercifolia). It grows in coppices or clumps near 
or on the banks of rivers and creeks ; many Items 
ufually arife from a root, fpreading itfelf greatly on 
all fides by fuckers or offsets ; the items grow five 
or fix feet high, declining or diverging from each 
other, and are covered with feveral barks or rinds* 
the laft of which being of a cinereous dirt colour 
and very thin, at a certain age of the Items or fhoots, 
cracks through to the next bark, and is peeled off 
by the winds, difcovering the under, fmooth, dark 
reddifh brown bark, which alfo cracks and peels off 
the next year, in like manner as the former ; thus 
every year forming a new bark ; the items divide 
regularly or oppofitely, though the branches are 
crooked or wreathe about horizontally, and thefe 
again divide, forming others which terminate with 
large heavy panicles or thyrfi of flowers ; but 
thefe flowers are of two kinds : the numerous par- 
tial fpikes which compofe the panicles and confift 
of a multitude of very fmall fruitful flowers, ter- 
minate 
