We pursued a general South-South-East direction, though from the windings, and the tide being against us, our progress was slow; and at the end of eleven miles were obliged to wait its changing. Here we landed in the mouth of a small creek at the end of a clear bank on the eastern side; the opposite one also began to wear the same character, and our eyes therefore were permitted to wander over an immense extent of very level open grassy country, dotted with clumps of trees. The tides changing only twice in twenty-four hours presented a great impediment to our exploration, and it was evening before we could again move onwards. AUSTRALIAN CUCKOO. Whilst waiting the tide, the note of a bird resembling the cuckoo broke the deep stillness that prevailed. It was evening; all around was calm: the wide extended plain dimly stretching away on every side, the waters as they imperceptibly swelled between the curving banks, the heavens in which the last rays of the sun still lingered, gilding the few clouds that hovered near the horizon. A pleasing sadness stole over the heart as these familiar sounds--the note of this Australian cuckoo, if I may venture to name a bird from its voice--floated through the tranquil air. Recollections of the domestic hearth, and the latticed window shaded with vines and honeysuckles, and the distant meadows, and glades, and woodlands, covered with the bursting buds of spring; and--pervading all and giving a charm to all--the monotonous but ever welcome and thrilling note of the cuckoo sounding afar off: recollections of all these things, I say, rushed o'er each fancy, and bore us for a moment back in imagination to our island home. DISCOVERY OF FLINDERS RIVER. The more rapid flow of the tide and the announcement that there was now sufficient water for the boats to proceed, broke our reverie; and we were soon once more cleaving the moonlit reach. I may here mention that this bird, and another with a more mournful cry, the same before spoken of up the Victoria River, were heard again at eventide.