Started this morning at half past six o'clock,
and in two hours reached the river.
The whole of the country we passed
was poor, and the soil within a mile of the river changed to a coarse
deep sand, which I have invariably found to compose its banks in every part
without exception that I ever saw. The stream at this place is about
350 feet wide; the water pure and excellent to the taste. The banks
are about twenty feet high and covered with trees, many of which had been
evidently bent by the force of the current in the direction which it runs,
and some of them contained rubbish and drift wood in their branches
at least forty-five feet above the level of the stream. We saw many ducks,
and killed one, which Colbee swam for. No new production among the shrubs
growing here was found. We were acquainted with them all. Our natives
had evidently never seen this river before. They stared at it with surprise,
and talked to each other. Their total ignorance of the country, and of
the direction in which they had walked, appeared when they were asked
which way Rose Hill lay; for they pointed almost oppositely to it.
Of our compass they had taken early notice, and had talked much to each other
about it. They comprehended its use, and called it 'naamoro,' literally,
"to see the way"; a more significant or expressive term cannot be found.
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