We soon came to a very promising opening which proved to be a creek, with a mouth of about two hundred yards wide, running up in a north-east direction, and having five fathoms of water inside, but with a bar entrance. When we had proceeded up it about two miles it became so narrow that there was not sufficient space left for the men to use their oars; therefore, making fast the two boats, I landed with a party to look for water. I stepped very gingerly and cautiously on the mud, for shore there was none; and I had the satisfaction of descending at once, mid-leg deep in the odious slime; but this being endured the worst was over, and, at the head of my sticking and floundering party, I waded on, putting to flight whole armies of crabs who had taken up their abode in these umbrageous groves, for such they certainly were. The life of a crab in these undisturbed solitudes must be sweet in the extreme; they have plenty of water, mud, and shade; their abodes are scarcely approachable by the feet of men, and they can have but little to disturb their monotonous existence save the turmoils of love and domestic war. After about two miles of wading of this description, which we considerably increased by turning and winding about to avoid soft places, we at length fairly stepped on terra firma and found ourselves at the base of some almost imperceptibly-sloping ground which gradually rose into low, red, sandy, loamy hills, thinly covered with grass, bushes, and stunted trees. Across these we bent our steps in a south-east direction, no change whatever taking place in the character of the country as far as we went or as far as we could see. But our travels in this line only extended for about three miles, when we suddenly came upon a lagoon of fresh water lying between two of the hills. All bent the knee at once, at this discovery, to plunge their faces deep in the pool, and, presently raising them up again, a black watery line, extending round the countenance, showed plainly how deeply each one had dipped. Mr. Smith and myself laughed heartily at our dirty-faced companions, who knelt on their hands and knees round the pool; and whilst they were filling the beakers with water we rested under the shade of the bush for a few minutes, and then walked off towards the interior; but from the undulating low nature of the ground our view was very limited, and as far as we could see there was no sign whatever of any change in the character of the country. On returning again to the party we found the beakers and men equally full of water and ready for a start to the boats. WADING THROUGH THE MUD.