I Consider That The River May Have From Eight To
Ten Feet More Water In It Than Usual:
Its present average depth is about
eighteen feet.
The soil of these extensive plains, designated Field's Plains, is for
the most part extremely rich, as indeed might be expected, from the
deposition of the quantities of vegetable matter that must take place in
periods of flood. The plains are in some places even lower than the
ground forming the immediate bank of the river, very soft, and difficult
for loaded horses to pass over. If we had been so unfortunate as to have
had a rainy season, it would have been utterly impossible to have come
thus far by land. The ranges of hills are unconnected, and are rocky and
barren; the swamps for the most part surrounding them. Mount Cunningham
is a lofty rocky hill, about a mile and a half long, composed of granite
rock, but entirely surrounded by low swampy ground.
Here we were so unfortunate as to find the barometer broken, the horse
which carried the instruments having thrown his load in passing the
swamps: every precaution had been taken in the packing to prevent such
an accident, which was the more to be regretted, as it interrupted a
chain of observations by which I hoped to ascertain the height of the
country with tolerable accuracy. The last observations that were made,
reduced to this place, gave us an elevation of not more than five
hundred feet above the sea, or about a hundred feet lower than the
country at the depot.
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