Page:Diary of ten years.djvu/88

 70 of liberation, but we only found another and another tempting us forward to incur a fresh disappointment.

16th.—Came to another rich valley, where we caught a kangaroo; arrived at Mount Bakewell, which is covered with long grass, principally of the poa species; searched for a stream, and found the river Avon, which in some places is 40 yards in breadth, but is in this place broken into several channels; we ascended at a steep point of the mount, which is about 1500 feet in elevation, and affords an extensive view of what appeared a level country, wooded and rich. Mount Bakewell is a combination of quartz, red sandstone, and granite; traced out the valley of the Avon for some distance, and calculated that our view extended forty miles, in some directions, without any very striking objects, excepting a few hills of conical form rising here and there; the soil in this district seems rich loam of a brownish hue, producing patches of grass, wherever a tree had been burnt, and flowers in great quantities, particularly everlasting pink; and here we also found trees like the crab apple, bearing round nuts of a walnut taste in abundance, but not yet ripe.

17th.—Bathed in the Avon, and made this a day of rest, as well as of ablution, of which the whole party were in need; our store of linen being necessarily very limited, almost like Falstaff's—"one shirt for superfluity, and one for use,"—it became necessary to wash; my stock was pretty large, consisting of four shirts, four pair of stockings, two pair of trousers, three pair of shoes, two coats, a large pair of worsted stockings, with leather soles, which I found very comfortable to sleep in; a straw hat for the day, and a blue cap for the night, with the hammock, blankets, and cloak already mentioned. In fine weather we preferred strewing the tops of the grass tree, which resemble rushes, on the ground, and so sleeping with our feet to the fire. I shall give you a short account of the tract we have explored: it is a range of hilly country, about fifty miles broad in one place, over which you