Travelling down the river.

It is deeply to be regretted that this noble river should exist at such a distance from the capital as to be unavailable.  During our stay on the Pondebadgery Plain, the men caught a number of codfish, as they are generally termed, but which are, in reality, a species of perch.  The largest weighed 40lb. but the majority of the others were small, not exceeding from six to eight.  M’Leay and I walked to the N.W. extremity of the plain, in order to ascertain how we should debouche from it, and to get, if possible, a view of the western interior.  We took with us two blacks who had attached themselves to the party, and had made themselves generally useful.  On ascending the most westerly of the hills, we found it composed of micaceous schist, the upper coat of which was extremely soft, and broke with a slaty fracture, or crumbled into a sparkling dust beneath our feet.  The summit of the hill was barren, and beef-wood alone grew on it.  The valley, of which it was the western boundary, ran up northerly for two or three miles, with all the appearance of richness and verdure.  To the south extended the flat I have noticed, more heavily timbered than we had usually found them, bounded, or backed rather, by a hilly country, although one fast losing in its general height.  To the W.N.W. there was a moderate range of hills on the opposite side of an extensive valley, running up northerly, from which a lateral branch swept round to the W.N.W. with a gradual ascent into the hills, which bore the same appearance of open forest, grazing land, as prevailed in similar tracts to the eastward.  The blacks pointed out to us our route up the valley, and stated that we should get on the banks of the river again in a direction W. by N. from the place on which we stood.  We accordingly crossed the principal valley on the following morning, and gradually ascended the opposite line of hills.  They terminate to the S.E. in lofty precipices, overlooking the river flats, and having a deep chain of ponds under them.  The descent towards the river was abrupt, and we encamped upon its banks, with a more confined view than any we had ever had before.  There was an evident change in the river; the banks were reedy, the channel deep and muddy, and the neighbourhood bore more the appearance of being subject to overflow than it had done in any one place we had passed over.  The hills were much lower, and as we gained the southern brow of that under which we encamped, we could see a level and wooded country to the westward.  The line of the horizon was unbroken by any hills in the distance, and the nearer ones seemed gradually to lose themselves in the darkness of the landscape.