The four boats commenced operations together at five o’clock the following morning but, our boat being overladen, we soon found that we were unable to keep pace with the others; and therefore proposed to the gentlemen in charge of the Company’s boats that they should relieve us of part of our cargo.  This they declined doing under the plea of not having received orders to that effect, notwithstanding that the circular with which I was furnished by Governor Williams strictly enjoined all the Company’s servants to afford us every assistance.  In consequence of this refusal we dropped behind, and our steersman, who was inexperienced, being thus deprived of the advantage of observing the route followed by the guide, who was in the foremost boat, frequently took a wrong channel.  The tow-line broke twice and the boat was only prevented from going broadside down the stream and breaking to pieces against the stones by the officers and men leaping into the water and holding her head to the current until the line could be carried again to the shore.  It is but justice to say that in these trying situations we received much assistance from Mr. Thomas Swaine who with great kindness waited for us with the boat under his charge at such places as he apprehended would be most difficult to pass.  We encamped at sunset, completely jaded with toil.  Our distance made good this day was twelve miles and a quarter.

The labours of the 16th commenced at half-past five, and for some time the difficulty of getting the boats over the rapids was equal to what we experienced the day before.  Having passed a small brook however, termed Halfway Creek, the river became deeper and although rapid it was smooth enough to be named by our Orkney boatmen Stillwater.  We were further relieved by the Company’s clerks consenting to take a few boxes of our stores into their boats.  Still we made only eleven miles in the course of the day.

The banks of Hill River are higher and have a more broken outline than those of Steel or Hayes Rivers.  The cliffs of alluvial clay rose in some places to the height of eighty or ninety feet above the stream and were surmounted by hills about two hundred feet high, but the thickness of the wood prevented us from seeing far beyond the mere banks of the river.

September 17.

About half-past five in the morning we commenced tracking and soon came to a ridge of rock which extended across the stream.  From this place the boat was dragged up several narrow rocky channels until we came to the Rock Portage where the stream, pent in by a range of small islands, forms several cascades.  In ascending the river the boats with their cargoes are carried over one of the islands, but in the descent they are shot down the most shelving of the cascades.  Having performed the operations of carrying, launching, and restowing the cargo we plied the oars for a short distance and landed at a depot called Rock House.  Here we were informed that the rapids in the upper