AGAIN ARRIVE ON THE GLENELG.

Casuarinae and banksia growing on grassy slopes were the next marks of a different country from that of the swamps, and at less than a mile from this point we came upon the river.

INDIFFERENT COUNTRY ON ITS BANKS.

Its banks had a different character from that which they presented above but they were still fine.

BREADTH AND VELOCITY OF THE RIVER.

The river now flowed in a narrow valley, the bed being about 70 feet below the common level of the swampy flats.  At sharp bends the banks consisted of cliffs of a soft limestone, composed in part of comminuted fragments of corallines, the interstices being rarely filled up; the rock contained also a few specimens of Foraminifera, most probably of recent species.  In the narrow valley all was flourishing and green, attesting the rich luxuriance of the alluvial soil.  The mimosa trees predominated, but still the bushes of leptospermum darkened the stream which was deep, rapid, and muddy, its breadth being about 40 yards and the bed consisting of a friable or soft calcareous sandstone.  In accompanying it in its course downward we met with less difficulty than I had expected, but I perceived that the barren swampy land, or more frequently the stringybark forests, approached the higher banks on both sides the river.  The few ravines falling in our way were only the drains from swamps close at hand and they were easily crossed by the party at the fall of the ground, where we found rocky strata.

ENCAMP ON A TRIBUTARY.

After tracing the river more than four miles we encamped on an elevated point overlooking a flat of good grass, so necessary for the cattle.

August 14.

Some of the bullocks were missing and we were compelled to wait an hour or two while parties went in search of them; one party being guided by Piper, the other by the two Tommies.  I availed myself of the leisure afforded by this delay to measure the breadth, depth, and velocity of the river which were respectively as follows: 

Average breadth:  35 yards. 
Mean depth:  17 feet. 
Velocity of the current:  1,863 yards per hour; the general course, as far
as we had traced this portion being nearly South-East.

When most of the cattle had been brought in we proceeded and, in endeavouring to keep along the highest ground between the swamps, I unavoidably left the river at some distance on our right, a circumstance I considered of less consequence as the ground appeared to be falling on my left towards some tributary; and at four miles we came upon a small river flowing rapidly in a valley nearly as deep and wide as the main stream.  The country on its immediate bank looked better than that last found on the main stream.  Limestone rock appeared in the bank opposite and at the foot of some cliffs we found fossil oyster-shells.  Mr. Stapylton traced this stream to its junction with the river about two miles lower down.