growing in unwonted luxuriance, and horses and cattle have taken the place
of the kangaroos, that we on this first visit found grazing there in
troops. In the distance could be seen the coast range behind Cardwell,
which seemed to recede inland as it trended towards our position, and
sweeping round, approached the sea again farther north, forming a natural
boundary to a vast space of available country. A silver line shone out on
the mountains, and with our glasses we could make out that it must be a
waterfall of very large dimensions. We at once agreed that it must be the
source of the very river we were on, the Macalister, but, as the sequel
will show, we found so many streams, that most probably we were mistaken in
our judgment. We resolved to make this charming spot our head-quarters for
the present, as we had everything to be desired -- water, game, etc. --
close at hand, and, from the absence of timber, no blacks would be able to
steal upon us unperceived.

Leaving the pilot and one man in charge of the boat, we trudged along
through the high grass, which reached to our middles, and was dripping with
moisture from a shower that had fallen during the night; and, after a
tedious walk, reached the edge of the scrub. It was thicker than anything
we had encountered before, the density of the foliage totally excluding the
sun, and giving rise to a dank humid odour that struck a chill to the heart
directly you entered. We wound along the path, or rather track, that the
blacks had made, with the greatest difficulty. It was all very well for
the troopers, who had stripped, but our clothes hitched up on a thorn at
every other step. One of our most provoking enemies was the lawyer vine, a
kind of rattan enclosed in a rough husk, covered with thousands of crooked
prickles. These, with their outer covering, are about an inch and a
quarter in diameter, and extend to an enormous distance, running up to the
tops of lofty trees, and from thence either descending or pushing onward,
or festooning themselves from stem to stem in graceful curves of