The width of the stream at low water, which was quite salt, was not more than twenty-five feet. When the flood commenced it came in so rapidly that the water rose five feet in ten minutes: altogether it rose twenty-four feet; but driftwood and dead branches of trees were noticed among the rocks at least fourteen feet above the ordinary high-water mark, indicating, at other seasons, the frequency of strong freshes or floods. One of the pieces of driftwood had been cut by a sharp instrument.
Mr. Roe further says, "From the appearance of the country and the steep hills, generally about three hundred feet high, among which this river winds, there can be little doubt of its being, during the rainy season, a considerable fresh-water stream; and as I consider the length of its various windings to be twenty-six or twenty-seven miles, there is every prospect of its being navigable for our boat for at least half that distance farther. Fish were plentiful, but principally of that sort which the sailors call cat fish; of these several were caught. Small birds were numerous, together with white cockatoos, cuckoos, some birds with very hoarse discordant notes, and one whose note resembled the beating of a blacksmith's hammer upon an anvil. At daybreak they all exerted themselves in full chorus, and I should then have proceeded farther, but the tide was half out, and a soft mud-bank forty feet broad fronting the shore cut off our communication with the boat."
As soon as the ebb-tide began to make Mr. Roe embarked on his return; and during his passage down saw as many as twelve alligators. Two were fired at but the balls glanced off their tough coats of mail without hurting or scarcely frightening them. A small trickling of water was noticed among the rocks, which they found to be fresh but in too small a quantity to be of any use. The boat was six hours and a half pulling down although for the first five hours the tide was favourable.
The river was named after the rector of Newbury, the reverend father of my zealous and diligent assistant Mr. Roe. It appears to be a very considerable stream and, as Mr. Roe justly observes, in the rainy season or at any other time of the year than during the months of September and October, which terminate the dry season, will doubtless afford a large quantity of fresh water.
The opportunity that offered in Hunter's River of filling our water-casks was not to be lost.
September 14.
And the day after the boat returned from the examination of Roe's River the cutter was moved to an anchorage about half way up the first or sea reach of Hunter's River.
September 15.
And the next morning before daylight the boats were despatched; but owing to the darkness of the morning and the ebb-tide having left the shores dry and almost inaccessible, from the quantity of mud that lined them, they did not reach the spring until late in the day. In the mean time, however, they contrived to wade through the mud to the shore; and then explored the bed of the river for half a mile beyond where our previous examination terminated.
In this space they passed several pools of fresh water which, in some parts, was running over a pebbly bottom; but the supply was so trifling as to be not sufficient to alter the taste of the seawater.