The whole day passed without any tidings of their approach, and another night had closed over us before I heard the distant calls of the bullock-drivers; but I had the satisfaction soon after of seeing the whole party and equipment again united on the banks of this promising stream.  The barometer was rising, the spring advancing, and the approaching warmth might be expected to harden the ground.  The cattle would be refreshed by a week’s rest in the midst of the rich pasture around us, while our labours to all appearance were on the eve of being crowned by the discovery of some harbour which might serve as a port to one of the finest regions upon earth.  At all events if we could no longer travel on land, we had at length arrived with two boats within reach of the sea, and this alone was a pleasing reflection after the delays we had lately experienced.

THE BOATS LAUNCHED ON THE GLENELG.

August 18.

An uncommonly fine morning succeeded a clear frosty night.  The boats were hoisted out to be launched once on the bosom of the newly discovered Glenelg; and they were loaded with what the party going with them might require for ten days.  I left with Mr. Stapylton instructions that the men under his charge should move up to and occupy the round point of the hill, a position which I named Fort O’Hare in memory of a truly brave soldier, my commanding officer who fell at Badajoz in leading the forlorn hope of the Light Division to the storm.

MR. STAPYLTON LEFT WITH A DEPOT AT FORT O’HARE.

At twelve o’clock I embarked on the river with sixteen men in two boats, leaving eight with Mr. Stapylton in the depot.

CHARACTER OF THE RIVER.

We met with many dead trees for the first mile or two, but none of these either prevented or delayed our passage; and the river then widened into fine reaches wholly clear of timber, so that the passage further down was quite uninterrupted.  The scenery on the banks was pleasing and various:  at some points picturesque limestone cliffs overhung the river, and cascades flowed out of caverns hung with stalactites; at others the shores were festooned with green dripping shrubs and creepers, or terminated in a smooth grassy bank sloping to the water’s edge.  But none of the banks consisted of water-worn earth; they were in general low and grassy, bounding the alluvial flats that lay between the higher points of land.  Within the first three or four miles from Fort O’Hare two tributaries joined the main stream from the right or westward, and one from the left or eastward:  one of the former ending in a noisy cascade at the junction.  The river soon opened to a uniform width of sixty yards, its waters being everywhere smooth and unruffled and the current scarcely perceptible.

Ornithorynchus paradoxus.