426 Account of the country between 
the foot of Fatigue Hill,—60 miles inland, perhaps 100 following 
its sinuosities. 
I regarded the discovery of pine trees here as most fortunate, 
as they greatly contributed to the further success of my labours, 
and to the after journey of Sir John Franklin’s party. This is 
one of those rivers which, from its large volume of water, and the 
slippery nature of the bottom, are seldom to be forded. To 
secure therefore its easy passage, we constructed a large pine raft, 
on which we crossed at pleasure. Whatever inconveniences we 
had to contend with, and they were neither few nor slight, 
when cutting our way through these remote and dense forests, we 
were never stopped by rivers, which would have been the case 
had there been no pine trees, the only floating timber the woods 
of this quarter of the island furnish ; the dead trees of these sun¬ 
less jungles being always water-logged, and the green wood sink¬ 
ing like a stone. 
Shortly after passing over this stream, the road is led up another 
of those huge hills so frequent on the route to the western coast; 
passing at the same time through three weary miles of forest 
land. We then crossed the last open space or plain which occurs 
on the journey, from which circumstance I called it the Western 
Plain. Its extent is inconsiderable; its quality worthless. From 
this high and barren field, as we look back, we descry, far inland, 
the Prince of Wales’ Mountains, so named by Sir John Franklin 
on the occasion of his crossing this place. The long well-defined 
and serried outline of these beautiful mountains, constitute for 
many miles, the last visible land of the quarter they are in; and 
in beauty or grandeur are not exceeded by anything that even the 
western portions of Van Diemen’s Land present. Lady Franklin 
gave the name of the Cracrofts to some high woody peaks near 
at hand, and on the right. 
It is here necessary that I should state that, for the next three 
quarters of a mile, after quitting the western plain, the path was 
never cleared ; and should any person make the journey by the 
route I marked, it will behove him, when he arrives here, to pro¬ 
ceed with the utmost caution, and not to fancy that in so short a 
