We met with many dead trees for the first mile or two, but none of these either prevented or delayed our passage; and the river then widened into fine reaches wholly clear of timber, so that the passage further down was quite uninterrupted. The scenery on the banks was pleasing and various: at some points picturesque limestone cliffs overhung the river, and cascades flowed out of caverns hung with stalactites; at others the shores were festooned with green dripping shrubs and creepers, or terminated in a smooth grassy bank sloping to the water's edge. But none of the banks consisted of water-worn earth; they were in general low and grassy, bounding the alluvial flats that lay between the higher points of land. Within the first three or four miles from Fort O'Hare two tributaries joined the main stream from the right or westward, and one from the left or eastward: one of the former ending in a noisy cascade at the junction. The river soon opened to a uniform width of sixty yards, its waters being everywhere smooth and unruffled and the current scarcely perceptible. Ornithorynchus paradoxus. Ducks were always to be seen in the reaches before us, and very frequently the Ornithorynchus paradoxus, an animal which had not, I believe, been hitherto seen so near the sea. After rowing about sixteen miles we landed on the left bank near a cascade falling from under a limestone cliff and there we encamped for the night. The sun was setting in a cloudless sky while I eagerly ascended the highest cliffs in hopes of obtaining a sight of the coast, but nothing was visible beyond a gently undulating woody country, some swamps alone appearing in it to the westward. The land about the cliffs of limestone was tolerably good and grassy, but towards the end of this day's pull forests of the stringybark sort of eucalyptus, having in them trees of large dimensions, closed on the river. We endeavoured but in vain to catch fish, and whether the waters contained the cod-perch (Gristes peelii) or not remained a question. Our position and our prospects were now extremely interesting and throughout the night I was impatient for the light of the next day. COURSE OF THE RIVER. August 19. I arose at three in order to determine the latitude more exactly by the altitude of various stars then approaching the meridian. These were Aries and Menkar; while the two feet of the Centaur, both fine circumpolar stars, were so steadily reflected in the placid stream that I obtained by that means the altitude of both BELOW THE POLE. It was most essential to the accuracy of my survey of the river that I should determine the latitude as frequently and exactly as possible. The sun afterwards rose in a cloudless sky and I ascertained the breadth of the river by means of a micrometer telescope to be exactly 70 yards. We continued our interesting voyage and found the river of very uniform width and that its depth increased.