My people had killed a small black snake...the same
kind...is common about Sydney. We pursued our course up the river and Mr.
Barrallier completed his survey."
The water in the river was found to be good and perfectly sweet, and the
casks were filled. Among the birds seen was a bell-bird which has "no
remarkable plumage but a note not unlike the tinkling of a bell, so that
when a number of these birds are collected together the noise they make
is similar to that made by the bells of a team of horses." The
laughing-bird (whose note can only be compared to the ha! ha! ha! of a
hearty laughing companion) was the first to salute the explorers in the
morning. The whistling duck, so called because of the whistling noise
made with its wings when flying, was shot here, and a grey parrot was
caught alive. Mr. Barrallier shot a rare cockatoo.* (* It was stuffed and
afterwards given to General Davies, R.A., by Governor King.) The wet
weather afterwards gave little chance of meeting with birds, and the
explorers made their way through the woods until they reached an
extensive level country. This plain extended out of their sight on the
one side and on the other was bounded by hills. Paths beaten down by
kangaroos crossed and recrossed it. The face of the country was almost
everywhere level and productive, free from swamp and secured from
inundation.
Grant thus describes the journey back to the ship: "We returned to the
river-side and ordered the boat to drop lower down a few miles through a
forest of stately timber trees. I had a few of them cut down and brought
on board...I brought Governor King specimens of light woods and a species
of sassafras discovered by my second mate...On our way down the river we
stopped at the place where we had passed the preceding night and found
our fire still burning. To this spot we gave the name of The Halfway
House, being halfway up the river."
The commander now revisited Churchill's Island: "I found my people had
cleared the spot I had laid out for a garden, and that there was nothing
wanting but to prepare the ground to receive such seeds as I should
choose to plant...It was no easy matter...for we had neither hoe nor
spade with us...however, we were in possession of a coal shovel which,
though it was thin and much worn, served the purpose.
"My men, who slept on the ground they had cleared...in a hut built for
the occasion, informed me that one of their comrades was awakened out of
his sleep by some animal that seemed to be gnawing his hair. He supposed
it to be the bandicoot rat.
