View from it.  Magnificent prospect.

When we gained the summit of the hill I found that in the mists of the morning we had ascended the wrong peak.  The one we stood on was composed of basalt and at least twelve hundred feet high; but Mount Lyell, another peak springing from the same range, and not more than a mile to the eastward, must have been four or five hundred feet higher.  It was moreover distinguished by a very remarkable feature, namely, a regular circle, as it were, drawn round the peak, some two hundred feet below the summit, and above this ring no trees grew; the conical peak which reared its head above the region of trees being only clothed with the greenest grass, whilst that on which I stood and all the others I could see were thinly wooded to their very summits.

The peak we had ascended afforded us a very beautiful view:  to the north lay Prince Regent’s River, and the good country we were now upon extended as far as the inlets which communicated with this great navigable stream; to the south and south-westward ran the Glenelg, meandering through as verdant and fertile a district as the eye of man ever rested on.  The luxuriance of tropical vegetation was now seen to the greatest advantage, in the height of the rainy season.  The smoke of native fires rose in various directions from the country, which lay like a map at our feet; and when I recollected that all these natural riches of soil and climate lay between two navigable rivers, and that its sea-coast frontage, not much exceeding fifty miles in latitude, contained three of the finest harbours in the world, in each of which the tide rose and fell thirty-seven and a half feet, I could not but feel we were in a land singularly favoured by nature.

Continuation of route.  Torrents of rain.

I remained for some time on the summit of this hill, enjoying the prospect, and taking bearings.  When this operation was completed we returned to the camp and prepared once more to proceed upon our route; but, to our misfortune, had not made more than two or three miles through a fertile country when the rain again fell in such torrents that we were compelled to halt.  Indeed none but those who have been in tropical countries can at all conceive with what suddenness and force these storms burst upon us.

March 14.

We this morning made an attempt to get clear of the marshes by following a south-easterly course, and were thus forced up into a range of lofty basaltic mountains, the slopes of which were of the richest description.  Had our ponies been provided with shoes we could have travelled here with great speed and facility, but the higher land was invariably covered with sharp pebbles over which the unshod ponies could only move with pain and difficulty.  When however we had gained the summit of the range the view from it was similar to that which I have just described.