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Hurrying down from the range, I followed the dray, and as soon as I overtook it, halted for the night in the midst of a thick scrub of large tea-trees and minor shrubs. There was a little grass scattered among the trees, on which, by giving our horses two buckets of water each, they were able to feed tolerably well.
Deep hollows surrounded by tea-trees, but quite dry, extended parallel to the river. We observed several islands in the river; and it was joined by some deep creeks filled with salt water at their lower parts, but dry higher up. The whole country was equally open and well grassed.
A narrow belt of brush, with drooping tea-trees, the Corypha palm, the Pandanus, and Sarcocephalus, grew along the water's edge. We proceeded four or five miles up the river, in a south-west direction, in order to find a crossing place. Large plains occupied both sides, on which numerous patches of grass had been lately burnt; which indicated the presence of natives.
The swamps narrowed towards the river, and formed large and frequently rocky water-holes, in a well defined channel, which, however, became broad and deep where it communicated with the river, and which in many places rivalled it in size. A belt of drooping tea-trees surrounded the swamps, whilst their outlets were densely fringed with Pandanus.
It then followed a creek down into swampy lagoons, which joined the broad irregular sandy bed of a river containing large pools and reaches of water, lined with Pandanus and drooping tea-trees. This river came from the eastward, and was probably the principal branch of the East Alligator River, which joined the salt-water branch we had crossed in latitude about 12 degrees 6 minutes.
The banks generally formed steep slopes descending into a line of hollows parallel to the river, and thickly covered with a high stiff grass; and then another steep bank covered with a thicket of drooping tea-trees, rose at the water's edge; and, if the descent into the bed of the river was more easy, the stream frequently was at the opposite side, and we had to walk several hundred yards over a broad sheet of loose sand, which filled our mocassins, when going to wash.
Scattered Pandanus and drooping tea-trees grew on their banks as far as the fresh water extended; when they were succeeded by the salt-water tea-tree and the mangrove, covering and fringing their beds, which enlarged into stiff plains, without vegetation, or into mangrove swamps. The latter were composed of Aegiceras, Bruguiera, and Pemphis.
This channel was fringed with the water Pandanus, which we first observed at Beames's Brook; the sandy bed was covered with drooping tea-trees and Grevillea chrysodendrum. Charley shot a bustard, the stomach of which was filled with seeds of Grewia, with small yellow seeds, and some beetles.
At ten miles we came to a small salt water stream, running seawards; in passing up it to look for a crossing place, Wylie caught two opossums, in the tops of some tea-trees, which grew on the banks.
The river was joined by a running creek from south-south-west, which we had to follow up about five miles, where it formed a very narrow channel between thickets of palm trees, drooping tea-trees, Sarcocephalus, and particularly Pandanus, which crowded round the tiny stream.
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