In our progress eastward we were still governed by the line of the Crawford; and the tortuous direction of the ravines connected with it required constant attention, while the very variable character of the swamps at the head of them was still more perplexing. We succeeded in finding a passage between all this day also and, on again crossing a small mountain torrent by filling up the chasm with dead timber, we encamped after another journey of seven miles. On our left to the northward lay a deep valley in which we found a broad sheet of water covered with ducks, the banks being soft and overgrown with reeds. A considerable stream flowed westward from this lake through a narrow part of the valley, so that I concluded we were still on the principal branch of the Crawford. Trees of large dimensions were abundant and the fallen timber impeded our progress even more than any unusual softness of the earth.
August 26.
After proceeding several miles without lett or hindrance, having successfully crossed some swampy rivulets all flowing to the left amidst thick scrubs, we at length arrived at a watercourse in which my horse went down, and which filled a very wide swampy bed enclosed by a thick growth of young mimosa trees, through which it was necessary to cut a passage wide enough for the carts. The scrub having been thus cleared to the extent of about 100 yards with much labour, I found only then unfortunately that although the roots grew very closely, and that water flowed over the surface, the earth was withal so soft that I could at every point with ease push a stick five feet down without reaching any firm bottom. The loose cattle were driven in, an experiment which until then we had tried with success in doubtful places, but they with difficulty got across this, for one of them sank and could not be extricated without considerable delay. While the men were busily employed there I rode to the head of the swamp which extended about a mile to the southward. On this swampy plain I at length succeeded in finding, with Mr. Stapylton's assistance, a line of route likely to bear the carts and we passed safely in that direction, not one carriage having gone down. While on this swampy surface we distinctly heard the breakers of the sea apparently at no great distance to the south-west, and I was convinced that the head of this swamp was about the highest ground immediately adjacent to Discovery Bay. On travelling a mile and a half further we reached a small rivulet, the first we had crossed flowing to the south. Beyond it the country appeared open and good, consisting of what is termed forest land with casuarinae and banksia growing upon it.
RECROSS THE RIFLE RANGE.
We had at length reached the highest parts of the range and were about to descend into the country beyond it. We continued to travel a considerable distance further than the rivulet flowing to the south. Crossing others running northward or to the left, and leaving also on the same side a swamp, we finally came to a higher range clothed with trees of gigantic size, attesting the strength and depth of the soil, and here enormous old trunks obstructed our passage, covering the surface so as to form an impediment almost as great to us as the swampy ground had been; but this large timber so near the coast was an important feature in that country. Piper, having climbed to the top of one of these trees, perceived some fine green hills to the south-east, saying they were very near us and that the sea was visible beyond them. It was late in the afternoon when I reluctantly changed my intended route, which had been until then eastward, to proceed in the direction recommended by Piper, or to the south-east and so to follow down a valley, instead of my proposed route which had been along a favourable range.
HEAVY TIMBER THE CHIEF IMPEDIMENT.
I had still less reason to be satisfied with the change when, after pushing my horse through thick scrubs and bogs until twilight and looking in vain for a passage for the carts, I encountered at length bushes so thickly set and bogs so soft that any further progress in that direction was out of the question; and thus on the evening when I hoped to have entered a better sort of country after so successful a passage of the range we encamped where but little grass could be found for the cattle, our tents being not only under lofty trees but amongst thick bushes and bogs during very rainy weather.
TRAVELLING ALSO DIFFICULT FROM THE SOFTNESS OF THE GROUND.
August 27.
I was so anxious to get into open ground again that, as soon as daylight permitted, I carefully examined the environs of our camp, and I found that we occupied a broad flat where the drainage from the hills met and spread among bushes, so that at one time I almost despaired of extricating the party otherwise than by returning to the hill at which I had first altered my route. The track we made had been however so much cut up by our wheels that I preferred the chance of finding a passage northward which, of course, was also less out of our way. We reached an extremity of the hill (the nearest to us on that side) with much less difficulty than I had reason to apprehend and, keeping along that feature, we soon regained a range which led us east-north-east. By proceeding in this direction however we could not avoid the passage of a valley where the water was not confined to any channel, but spread and lodged on a wide tract of very soft ground, also covered with mimosa bushes and a thick growth of young saplings of eucalyptus. The light carts and the first heavy cart got over this soft ground or bog, but the others and the boat carriage sank up to the axles so that we were obliged to halt after having proceeded about five miles only. This was near a fine forest-hill consisting of trap-rock in a state of decomposition, but apparently similar to that of the trap-rock I had ascended on the 23rd of August; and from a tree there Burnett thought he saw the sea to the north-east, and even to the northward of a remarkable conical hill. The discovery of the sea in that direction was so different from the situation of the shore as laid down on the maps that I began to hope an inlet might exist there as yet undiscovered, the "Cadong," perhaps, of the native woman, "where white men had never been."*