Page:Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay.djvu/64

 bank into the river, and wetted every thing on his back. On examining what damage had been done, we found that all the sugar was melted, and a large portion of the flour caked together; our blankets also were quite wet.

March 11th.—I continued my course up the river, over the same kind of ground as the day before, until I attained a point where the brush seemed to be almost entirely superseded by narrow, lightly wooded flats; with patches of the Swamp oak (Casuarina paludosa) growing among the shingles of the stream. I now thought it useless to go on farther, towards the source of this river. My provisions were decreased 'from yesterday's accident, and we were separated from the MacLeay by numerous lofty ranges, almost inaccessible for our horses. I had now ascertained the existence of a fresh-water stream, between the MacLeay and Clarence rivers, little inferior in size to the Hastings, but was much disappointed at its total inutility; for, notwithstanding the romantic beauty of the scenery at the Bellengen, and the rich luxuriance of the vegetation on its banks, the steep lofty ranges which hem it in on every side, and contract its valley to the most insignificant dimensions, render it perfectly unavailable for grazing purposes.

March 12th.—This day we descended the river, until five o'clock in the afternoon, when we stopped to refresh our horses and ourselves, on a small grassy plain of about fifty acres in extent. I amused myself, whilst waiting for our pots to boil, in cutting out