from that of the Strickland. There appeared to be more of the lignite or coal mixed with the stone, and the magnetic iron-sand was much purer and heavier. Much as I should have liked to examine the Cecilia I had to keep to the main stream; and leaving a large present close to the food the natives had abandoned, and planting a red ensign on a pole, we proceeded.
About here, there must be at times immense bodies of water coming down. There are a number of dry channels to be seen, looking like roads cut through the high forest trees; they are almost as straight and regular as if made by the hands of man; from 80 to 200 yards wide, and many of them contain a fall of, I should think, 1 in 100 feet.
Soon after passing this junction we saw many signs of human life, and passed some houses and a very primitive raft. I was also pleased to see the hills, which hitherto have only appeared on the east side, are now to be found on both sides, the river now cutting right through them.
The land here is swampy; back from the river and in the gulleys close to the hills the sago palm appears very plentiful, and there are also plenty of natives hereabouts. The level of the river is also rising very rapidly; it has quite become a case of getting upstairs to ascend the rapids at all. I should estimate a rise of 30 feet in the water-level in half a mile in some places.
The current was so strong that we had to use a number of devices to ascend, and the snags outlying from the banks made it very dangerous; the current rushing over and round them made it appear like a series of boiling whirlpools and breakers, and in many places we had to pass a long rope under the snags up the river, and make it fast to a snag or tree in the bank, then sheer the boat outside or between the snags, and haul up foot by foot, fleeting the rope again and again until we came to easier ground.
But on the afternoon of Thursday, September 21th, on rounding a point we were rewarded by the sight of a low range of hills about 1,000 feet high, over which was a complete view of two distinct ranges of mountains, the nearer one perhaps 50 miles,[1] and the farther one 80. The river now became straighter, and ran between high steep banks, or rather a series of small hills. I estimated we were about 18 miles from the lowest range of hills, and between us and their base the country formed a series of low hill-ranges 200 to 300 foot high, gradually increasing in height as they went north.
We were now nine days from our depôt, and our provisions were nearly finished, part of them having been spoiled by the boat getting stove as we
- ↑ Von Mueller range.
