COASTS OF AUSTRALIA. 
17 ! 
screams of a bird which had roosted over our 3319. 
fires, and which the people called the cat-bird. May 1 3. 
The trichillia and the ficus , before noticed, 
are abundant on these banks, and are all intri- 
cately connected with each other by climbing 
plants, which grow to an incredible size, and 
hang down in rich clusters from the summit to the 
root of the tree, tending considerably to beautify 
the richness of the scene. 
The woods included every tree of the soil and 
climate, excepting a white and straight stemmed 
eucalyptus , which is common at Hunter’s River, 
and there called the Flooded Gum; it is used 
and reckoned valuable for spars, but the few spe- 
cimens that I have seen of it have been very brittle 
and bad. Some of these trees were observed by 
us to be from fifty to sixty feet high, perfectly 
straight, and without a fork for forty feet. 
The next morning our boats, in company, pro- 
ceeded for two miles farther up ; in this space 
we crossed four falls, the last of which, running 
with great rapidity, occasioned some difficulty 
and trouble in passing over it : a little above this 
fall our exploration terminated, and we stopped 
to examine the timber. Several cedar-trees, 
( cedrelea toona ) of large growth, were observed ; 
one of which, being measured, was found to be 
ten feet in diameter at the base. 
