21 Degrees 3 Minutes; The
River Winds Considerably.
We passed several hills at the latter part of
the stage.
I ascended one of them, on the right bank of the river, and
obtained an extensive view of the country, which has a very uniform
character. There were ridges and low ranges to the westward, one of which
stretched from N. by W. far to the westward. The hill on which I stood
was composed of limestone rock; it was flat-topped, with steep slopes at
each end.
In lat. about 21 degrees 6 minutes, we crossed a large creek, densely
lined with dropping tea trees, coming from the westward. It was here we
first met with Careya arborea (Roxb.), a small tree from fifteen to
twenty feet high, with elliptical leaves of soft texture, four inches
long, and two in breadth; its fruit was about two inches long, contained
many seeds, and resembled that of the Guava. Its leaves, however, had
neither the vernation nor the pellucid dots of Myrtaceous trees. At the
junction of the creek, a great number of small Corypha palms were
growing, and my companions observed the dead stems of some very high
ones, whose tops had been cut off by the natives, probably to obtain the
young shoot. We passed hills of baked sandstone, before reaching the
creek, and afterwards crossed a fine sandy flat, with poplar-gum. The
river has a broad bed, at times dividing into several channels, lined
with stately Melaleucas and flooded-gum, and again uniting into one deep
channel, with long reaches of water surrounded by Polygonums, and
overgrown with blue Nymphaeas, Damasoniums, and Utricularias, and
inhabited by large flights of ducks.
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