Page:Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay.djvu/50

which flows into the Nambucca river. I gave it the native name of Oankihi creek; it was flowing on a bed of dark blue rock, which appeared to be limestone. In the thick brushes which skirt this stream, I saw a great number of gigantic ferns, which are common enough at lllawarra, and many other parts of the colony, but which I had never seen in the MacLeay river brushes. After proceeding a few miles farther, over a country of alternate low ranges, and gravelly water-courses in brushy hollows, we crossed a high leading range of grassy forest hills; a descending spur of which brought us to, the brink of a rapid stream, dashing along in a very irregular bed of slaty rock, the strata of which had a great inclination. We had some trouble in getting our horses across the jagged and pointed rocks, which rose out of the water. The native name of this stream was Algomerra. On the other side of the Algomerra, we entered a dense brush, which continued unbroken for several miles. Here we had to dismount, and assist the blacks in cutting a passage for our horses through the masses of briars and creepers, that bound the trees together. On emerging from this brush, we continued crossing a never-ending succession of densely- wooded ranges, and brushy gullies, containing small gravelly watercourses, and at length reached one of the main streams flowing into the Nambucca. It was about one hundred feet wide here, being a limpid, shallow stream, with a gravelly bed. On entering