trees and shrubs, lay between it and the river.

It appeared to me that the whole of these flats are occasionally
overflowed by the river, the water of which is forced up the creek
before-mentioned, and which again acts as a drain on the fall of the
water.

At four o'clock we halted for the evening, after a fatiguing day's
journey; the boats were obliged to cut their passage three or four
times, and the whole navigation was difficult and dangerous: the current
ran with much rapidity, and the channel seemed rather to contract than
widen. We were obliged to stop on a very barren desolate spot, with
little grass for the horses; but further on the country appeared even
worse. The south bank of the river (as far as I could judge) is
precisely similar to that which we are travelling down. The clear levels
examined to-day were named the Solway Flats. Many fish were caught here,
one of which weighed upwards of thirty pounds.

May 6.--Proceeded down the river. It is impossible to fancy a worse
country than the one we were now travelling over, intersected by swamps
and small lagoons in every direction; the soil a poor clay, and covered
with stunted useless timber. It was excessively fatiguing to the horses
which travelled along the banks of the river, as the rubus and
anthistiria
were so thickly intermingled, that they could scarcely force a passage.
After proceeding about eight miles, a bold rocky mount terminated on the
river, and broke the sameness which had so long wearied us: we ascended
this hill, which I named Mount Amyot, and from the summit had one of the
most extensive views that can be imagined. On the opposite side of the
river was another hill precisely similar to Mount Amyot, leaving a