46 
Report of the Expedition 
joined the swamp; the others to the westward. We met with 
water in latitudes 12deg. 38min., 12deg. 26min. 41 sec., 12deg. 
21 min. 49 sec. Here I met with granite again, which cropt out 
in the bed of a fine creek, with an abundant supply of water. At 
about 12 deg. 17 min. I crossed a running brook, bubbling and 
murmuring like the mountain brooks of Europe. It was probably 
the outlet of a tea-tree swamp. Its bed was rocky. A fine path 
of the natives passed along its banks. 
My northerly course brought me to an immense plain, six to 
seven miles broad, and endless to the eye to the westward and 
eastward. That part which was nearest to the forest land (which 
ended everywhere in pandanus groves and tea-tree hollows) was 
composed of black soil and richly grassed. Nearer to the salt¬ 
water creeks, which we met, and which compelled us to return to 
the forest, the soil was a stiff clay, covered with a stiff dry grass. 
The salt-water creeks were lined by mangroves. We found water 
in a swamp along the forest. It was covered with geese and 
ducks. About four miles farther to the east-north-east, friendly 
black fellows showed us a number of deep wells (six to seven feet 
deep,) which were dug through the sand to a layer of clay, on 
which the water collected. These wells were observed all along 
those big plains, which we passed or crossed afterwards. It 
appears that the black fellows either dig them, because open water 
is wanting, or because the water in swamps and lagoons is very 
bad, or because they want water in the immediate neighbourhood 
of those places where they find abundant food during a certain 
season. I believe that the latter is generally the case, though the 
two other ones may occasionally compel them to procure water 
by digging. 
At latitude 12 deg. 8 min,, longitude 132 deg. 40 min., I came 
on the East Alligator, and I saw myself compelled to go to the 
southward, as far as latitude 12 deg. 23 min., in a south-south¬ 
easterly course, to cross the river. Large plains accompany it all 
along its left bank. Ridges and forest land are beyond the plains, 
and along the outskirts of the forest land the wells of the natives 
are found. At the right side we observed conical and strange¬ 
shaped hills, either isolated or connected in short ranges; and 
