35. W.
July 9. - Set forward at eight o'clock, and continued travelling until
five in the afternoon, chiefly through very thick brushes, consisting of
various shrubs, with casuarina and dwarf box trees; the country nearly a
marsh and almost impassable, so much so, that I had great difficulty in
keeping my course, being the greater part of the day up to our knees in
water.
I estimate my distance this day to be about fifteen miles, on a
north-east course.
July 10. - The country worse than yesterday, being exceeding low and
marshy, with many thick scrubs. About eleven o'clock it opened, being
more thinly clothed with the acacia pendula: having travelled about ten
miles, we arrived on the borders of a large apparent plain, on which I
had proceeded about two miles, when we were suddenly stopped by deep
water among reeds; from hence I could distinctly see Arbuthnot's Range,
the north end of which bore N. 101., and the other part connected by a
low range bore from N. 108 to N. 112.
The country from north-west to north-east was open with the horizon,
being covered with water and reeds, as far as the eye could distinguish;
we saw immense numbers of wild ducks, many black swans, pelicans, and
birds resembling the sea gannet: I altered my course to east, and shortly
afterwards to south-east.
I estimate the distance travelled this day to be eighteen miles.
