142 
REMARKABLE CLIFFS. 
In the course of the afternoon the old man joined us, and 
got into the boat. As far as we could understand from his 
signs, we were at no great distance from some remarkable 
change or other. The river had been making to the N.W., 
from the commencement of the fossil formation, and it ap- 
peared as if it was inclined to keep that direction. The old 
man pointed to the N.W., and then placed his hand on the 
side of his head to indicate, as I understood him, that we 
should sleep to the N. W. of where we then were ; but his 
second motion was not so intelligible, for he pointed due 
south, as if to indicate that such would be our future course ; 
and he concluded his information, such as it was, by de- 
scribing the roaring of the sea, and the height of the waves. 
It was evident this old man had been upon the coast, and 
we were therefore highly delighted at the prospect thus 
held out to us of reaching it. 
A little below the hills under which we had stopped, the 
country again assumed a level. A line of cliffs, of from 
two to three hundred feet in height, flanked the river, first 
on one side and then on the other, varying in length from a 
quarter of a mile to a mile. They rose perpendicularly from 
the water, and were of a bright yellow colour, rendered still 
more vivid occasionally by the sun shining full upon them. 
The summits of these cliffs were as even as if they had been 
built by an architect ; and from their very edge, the country 
back from the stream was of an uniform level, and was partly 
plain, and partly clothed by brush. The soil upon this 
plateau, or table land, was sandy, and it was as barren and 
