CHANGE IN THE VEGETATION.

August 2.

Daylight now burst upon us with tropical rapidity.  The banks had assumed a very different appearance; the monotonous mangroves had given place to gumtrees and acacias, which drooped over the stream, partly concealing a rich growth of large flags.  This change in the character of the foliage was not only in itself a relief, but evinced that we had at length, in some sort, escaped the influence of the sea, and that we were in reality penetrating towards the interior of the continent.

Our course was now North-West 1/2 West for a mile and a half, with an increase in the width, and a depth of nine feet.  Here we found the river suddenly turn round to the southward and eastward, bringing us back within five hundred yards of where we started from, which was one mile West by South 1/2 South from the morning’s observation spot.  Brown whistling wood-ducks now made their appearance, and being unaccustomed to man and his destructive weapons, allowed us to revel in wildfowl for some days afterwards.

PROCEED UP THE ALBERT.

The morning sun was hailed with delight, as sitting cramped up in a boat, with the unusually low temperature of 53 degrees made us very chilly, and brought flushing jackets and trousers into great request, whilst in midday the light clothing natural to the latitude was sufficient.  We found the tides rise here four feet, and both flood and ebb ran from one to two knots.  After following a reach, trending South-East 1/2 East a mile, with a string of islets in the upper part, our westerly progress became more rapid and direct, and with the exception of one bend to the northward we made three miles in a West-South-West direction.

But we were once more doomed to be interrupted by the sudden turning of the river short off to the northward, when it wound round a point a mile long, and a quarter wide, the extremity of which is low and sandy, a character only this once observed in the Albert; on the opposite side were cliffs thirty feet high.

NATIVES.

Near the sandy point we observed some fires; and on our return, by crawling up the bank, I got a peep at a small party of natives engaged intently in digging for the esculent called warran.  As they were few in numbers our abrupt appearance would have too much terrified them to leave any chance of an interview; and we accordingly did not disturb them, but contented ourselves with watching their movements for a while.  The spectacle was an interesting one.  Both men and women were engaged in delving for their food, whilst a little beyond a few more were burning the bush, and looking out for game and snakes.  It does not often fall to the lot of the white man to behold the wild people of the earth, engaged in their daily avocations, completely unconscious that the gaze of a superior class of beings is upon them.  We have seen savages exhibited to us professedly in all the simplicity of the woods; but how can the children