DEEP STREAM.
March 27.
The ponies having been routed out of their long and excellent feed, amongst which indeed it was no easy matter to find them, we moved on. I could not but reflect how different our position and the condition of the ponies would have been had we known as much of the country at first starting as we did at present; but these reflections were now useless. With the exception of one small rocky valley, the whole of our morning's journey was through a rich and fertile country until we reached a deep stream, thirty or forty yards wide and apparently navigable for large boats up to this point; it ran away to the westward, but with a current scarcely perceptible.
DIFFICULT APPROACH TO IT.
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 them. It was some time before we got rid of the main stream, and we then found ourselves on a narrow terrace of land which was bounded on the left by rocky cliffs, and on the right by a large tributary of the stream we had just crossed. This tributary was not fordable here so we were compelled to travel up the terrace where our way was much impeded by the luxuriant vegetation and by fallen trees of great magnitude; indeed of a size which those alone who have traversed tropical virgin forests can conceive.
That we could not get off this terrace was the more provoking from seeing, immediately on the other side of the stream, one of those wide open basaltic valleys which I have so often mentioned. We at length reached the point where the stream issued from the high land and, having here forded it, entered the large valley, but in its centre we found another impassable stream and, in order to turn this, were obliged to travel round the valley; but before we could gain the head of it we had to cross two streams which ran into it on the eastern side. These however gave us but little trouble.
NATIVE HUT.