Before the first dawn I called some of the party and we started off to visit the banks of the river. The first part of our journey lay across rich grassy flats, thinly wooded with large shady trees, or over gently rising grounds, on which grew an abundance of young grass which appeared to be a species of oat. These rising grounds were thinly wooded with a small sort of gum tree, called in the Isle of France the Bois noir.
We soon reached low marshy land intersected with large dry mud flats and, as it was impossible, from the nature of the country, to get the pony further, I tethered it, and we tried to make the river on foot. The position which we had selected was however so unfavourable that we did not succeed in reaching the river, and my wound became so painful that I was scarcely able to crawl back to the pony.
We then returned to the tents, which we reached in the afternoon, and I sent another party out to examine the country and to see if they could find a more favourable position for the tent where we might be less exposed to the mosquitoes. The remainder of the men were employed in repairing the packsaddles and in mending our shoes, which were in a very dilapidated condition. The detached party, on their return, reported that they could not find a more favourable position for the tents; and that we appeared to be on a low marshy tongue of land which the river nearly flowed round. We this day saw the tracks of an emu, and of several large dogs, and kangaroos.
ASCEND A HILL.
March 4.
By sunrise I had gained the foot of the highest hill near our encampment. It is a very remarkable rocky eminence; in height above the immediate base it was only 250 feet, but it rose by a regular steep slope from the river, which was distant about four miles. I do not think therefore that its height above the level of the sea was less than 800 feet. I was unable to ride up this hill, from the rocky nature of the ground, which was composed of a basalt resembling that of the Isle of France; its sides were slightly wooded and clothed with a fine grass nearly as high as myself. From the heaviness of the dew, walking through a river would have been about as agreeable as walking through this grass; but when I had reached the summit the view amply repaid me for the trouble of the ascent.
VIEW OF THE GLENELG FROM IT.
The river flowed through a rich and fertile country at the base of the hill, having in some places hereabouts a triple channel formed by large and apparently fertile islands, and its width must have been at least three or four miles; it however ran away so much to the north-eastward that I began to fear it might be a great salt-water inlet, communicating in some manner with Prince Regent's River, and that we might thus find ourselves upon a large island. I had a good view of the valley for 10 or 12 miles in an easterly direction over a country still very fertile, but all that I saw tended to make me believe that the river had some communication with the sea, somewhere towards the north-east.
We reached the camp before breakfast; and, as this was Sunday and our ponies were rapidly improving from the goodness of their feed, I determined to halt here for a day or two whilst a detachment examined the country to ascertain, if possible, whether we were on an island or not, and whether it was possible to cross the river near our present position.
March 5.