Crescent.  There are doubtless many small eminences which might afford a retreat from the inundations, but those which were observed by us were too trifling and distant from each other to stand out distinct from the vast level surface which the crescent presents to the view.  The soil of the country we passed over was a poor and cold clay; but there are many rich levels which, could they be drained and defended from the inundations of the river, would amply repay the cultivation.  These flats are certainly not adapted for cattle; the grass is too swampy, and the bushes, swamps, and lagoons, are too thickly intermingled with the better portions to render it either a safe or desirable grazing country.  The timber is universally bad and small; a few large misshapen gum trees on the immediate banks of the river may be considered as exceptions.  If however the country itself is poor, the river is rich in the most excellent fish, procurable in the utmost abundance.  One man in less than an hour caught eighteen large fish, one of which was a curiosity from its immense size, and the beauty of its colours.  In shape and general form it most resembled a cod, but was speckled over with brown, blue, and yellow spots, like a leopard’s skin; its gills and belly a clear white, the tail and fins a dark brown.  It weighed entire seventy pounds, and without the entrails sixty-six pounds:  it is somewhat singular that in none of these fish is any thing found in the stomach, except occasionally a shrimp or two.  The dimensions of this fish were as follow: 

Feet.  Inches.

Length from the nose to the tail 3 5
Circumference round the shoulders 2 6
Fin to fin over the back 1 5
Circumference near the anus 1 9
Breadth of the tail 1 1 1/2
Circumference of the mouth opened 1 6
Depth of the swallow 1 foot.

Most of the other fish taken this evening weighed from fifteen to thirty pounds each, and were of the same kind as the above.

May 7.—­A fine clear frosty morning.  The horses having been much fatigued by the two last days’ journey, I determined to halt to-day instead of Saturday, as the grass was good, which is more than could be said of it for some days past.  Observed the latitude to be 33. 22. 59.  S.

May 8.—­Proceeded down the river.  Our general course was westerly, and the country, though equally level with any we had passed, improved in the quality of the soil, which, during the greater part of to-day’s route, was a good vegetable mould, the land thickly covered with small acacia and dwarf trees.  On the south side of the river it was apparently the same; and the whole we passed over bore evident marks of being subject to inundations.