Page:Diary of ten years.djvu/183

 THE COLONY.

Hermitage, Swan River, March 9.

is a wide chasm in my diary, which I fear I shall not be able to close satisfactorily. Between hurry and bustle on land, (not to speak of a little squeamishness at sea), my various occupations since I have landed, and interruptions at home, I have got most hopelessly into arrear; yet I hope to bring it up.

On the 26th ult. we left George's Sound at sunrise, Doctor Littleton, Mr. Cheyne, (with whom I had lived there), Mr. Morley, and Mr. Cleod, of the 63rd, accompanying our original party, until we got into the Sound. We anchored in Minder's Bay, and on the 28th went to Mr. Morley's house, which is prettily situated on the Blackwood, near its mouth. Here, on the floor of an uninhabited house, we spread our mattrasses and cloaks, and with the aid of a good fire made ourselves very comfortable.

The weather, during the whole period of our excursion, was about the temperature of an English spring; indeed, it is said that the thermometer at King George's Sound seldom rises above 82°.

March 1st.—We advanced up the Blackwood, and got fast on the flats, which we had some trouble to push over; there is a passage, but we missed it. On these flats we saw numbers of ducks, and upwards of a hundred swans—a good classical