Page:Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay.djvu/86

 of the spur, by which we had descended, Bellengen Billy being the leader, as we trusted to him to find water in the brush; for my blacks told me I had come too low down, as the Odalberree was brackish here. We soon found a channel containing some indifferent water; and having discovered a spot free from the thorny creepers, and entangled canes, we cut down the tall fern which grew there, and lit a fire on the cleared space.

After we had taken some food, and composed ourselves to sleep on the fern we had cut down, I heard the rumbling of distant thunder. The stars soon after became overcast, and the pattering of the rain on the dense mass of foliage over our heads, and the vivid flashes of lightning announced the approach of the storm. It was some time before the rain reached us through the thick' foliage of the tall trees and matted creepers, but when it did at length penetrate through this temporary protection, it was worse for us than if we had been in the open forest, for after the storm had passed over, the trees continued to distil large drops of water on us during the remainder of the night. Those disagreeable reptiles the brush-leeches, were also roused into activity by the rain; they are similar to the leeches of stagnant ponds, and abound in the dank rotten masses of leaves, and decomposed wood, of the brushes. These leeches attach themselves to the boots of persons traversing the brush, and soon manage to crawl under the trowsers or gaiters and