The muskets were therefore placed in readiness and a watch set to give our party warning if they approached. In the middle of the night the noise was again heard, but upon being repeated several times it was discovered that we had been deceived by the screams of a bird whose note exactly resembled the human cry. Our fears of being attacked by the natives being now dispelled, our party composed themselves again to rest, but without obtaining any sleep in consequence of the immense swarms of mosquitoes, which buzzing about in incredible numbers were not to be kept from stinging us by any measures we could devise. The tent was very soon deserted and many other places were tried in vain; the only method at all successful, by which some respite was obtained, was by lying upon the ground within two feet of the blaze of the fire; the heat and smoke of which, with the danger of our clothes catching fire, were insignificant inconveniences compared with the mosquitoes' stings; and those only who placed themselves in this situation obtained a few hours' sleep. August 6. At daylight, begrimed with dirt and smoke, we re-embarked, and pulled five miles further up the river, when its further examination was given up; at this place its breadth was about twenty yards, and being high water the greatest depth was twelve feet; at low water the channel must be nearly dry. We did not reach the cutter until six o'clock in the evening, much exhausted for want of rest, and from exposure to a powerful sun, and a hot land wind that prevailed all day. This river, which I have named the Liverpool, runs up from a well-formed port about forty miles, taking in its way a very serpentine course; its breadth at Entrance Island is about four miles; ten miles from the mouth its width is about half a mile, after which it very gradually decreases; at about fourteen miles from our anchorage the water is fresh at half tide but at low water it might probably be obtained four or five miles lower down. The bottom is muddy as are also the banks; and in consequence the latter are only accessible at high tide, at which time they are seldom more than two or three feet above the water's edge. The country within is very level, and appeared during the wet season to be occasionally inundated: the soil where we landed is a sour stiff clay on which grew an arundinaceous grass. At one place where the bank was about fifteen feet high and formed of red clay Mr. Cunningham landed, and collected a variety of interesting plants. The open banks of the river were covered with salicorniae and other common chenopodeae; and, in the midst of the usual assemblage of rhizophoreae, the Avicennia tomentosa, Linn. was observed of remarkable growth, being in many parts from fifty to sixty feet high, three feet in diameter at the base, and of a straight tapering poplar shape.