It was very difficult to approach this stream on account of the marshy nature of its banks, which were overgrown with bamboo and, even if we could have got the ponies to it, it was not fordable here.  We therefore turned up it in an easterly direction to look for a passage over it; and in so doing were necessarily compelled to cross many smaller streams and a great deal of swampy ground in which some of the most weakly of the ponies got bogged and were only extricated with great difficulty.  However annoying this was I could not but smile at the distress of some of the men, who had contracted a friendship for the animals they had so long led, when one of their favourites got into a difficulty.  The exclamations of Ruston the old sailor were particularly amusing, as, according to the position in which the animal got bogged, he used to roar out for someone “to come and give his pony a heave upon the starboard or larboard quarters;” and once, when violently alarmed at the danger he imagined his pet pony to be in, he shouted amain, “By G—–­, Sir, she’ll go down by the stern.”  At last however we got clear of the marsh, and reached a rocky gorge where this stream issued from the hills, and here we stopped for breakfast

This spot was very picturesque.  The river as it issued from the gorge in the high wooded hills first formed a series of cascades, and then at the mouth of the gorge expanded into a large pool.  It was at this point, although only a secondary stream in this country, far larger than any of the rivers of South-Western Australia.  At the gorges, where they issue from the hills, its banks were clothed with the pandanus, lofty gum trees, and a very luxuriant vegetation.  We first sought for a ford up the river in the direction of the rapids, but our search was fruitless.  On returning to breakfast I found that the men had caught three fish and one of the long-necked fresh-water turtle which are common over the whole of this continent.  Mr. Lushington had also shot several black cockatoos so that we were supplied with a meal of meat, a luxury we had not enjoyed for a long time.

CROSS A LARGE RIVER.

After breakfast Corporal Auger started alone and returned in about an hour to report that he had found a ford across the river close to us.  I therefore ordered the ponies to be brought up and we at once moved on.  The river where we crossed it in south latitude 15 degrees 49 minutes, east longitude 125 degrees 6 minutes, was about a hundred yards wide.  It was however nowhere more than knee deep as we wound through it, following a circuitous course; but we passed very deep parts on each side, and I could not but admire the perseverance of Auger in having discovered so very intricate a ford as this was.  There were several minor channels to the stream not much wider than an English ditch; they were however very deep and went winding along through groves of the pandanus and lofty reeds, which formed leafy tunnels above