"crittur."
With a due sense of his responsibility as a common carrier, to land his cargo safe, he refused this request, and Brother Jonathan was compelled to take a long shot, the only result of which was to make old long nose hurry back into the water faster than ever he had travelled before. We saw no alligator there, but we got a shot at a brace of ducks, and bagged one. By the way, the ducks here have a very beautifully variegated plumage The ordinary teal are black and white, very prettily marked, particularly about the head, two stripes of black feathers running down the neck from the hack of the head, and two circles of black surrounding the eyes. Others have all the splendid plumage and rich glittering colours of the pheasant, the feathers being stained in variegated rings, and shining in bronze and gold. A distance of ten miles from this island, having been passed over, we reached the southern extremity of Lang Island. There was nothing particularly noticeable in this distance, except when, here and there, a creek came into the river now on one side, now on the other; the country bearing the same character throughout, and being, without exception, the most verdant and thickly grassed bush that I ever passed over. We had several shots at teal and duck as we passed along, but the poor creatures had been so peppered by the passengers in the numerous boats that ply upon the river, that they were very shy, and we were never able to get within reasonable shooting distance, and though we wounded several, they managed to get away into the reeds and so were lost. What with our shooting, our looking for wounded birds, and our occasional surveys of the country, the sun was getting low, when we made Long Island, and so it was unanimously resolved to camp for the night, and a thick cluster of swamp oaks on the western bank was chosen as our sleeping place. At this spot the river divides itself -- one, the principal, channel, turning almost backwards on the previous course of the stream, and running round the southern extremity of the island. In this channel there is deep water throughout, but its course is tortuous, and it is four miles longer than the other, or the eastern channel; that is about five miles in length, but in dry seasons there are one or two spots over which it is all but impossible to float a boat. This renders it accessible only at high water or in seasons of flood. It was on the promontory formed by the bend taken by the western channel that we fixed our camp. A. fire was soon lighted, our billys -- I believe I have before explained that the billy is a tin saucepan with a cover, which amongst the diggers has superseded the quart pot of the original bushman our billys were put to the fire, our tea made and consumed, and our solitary duck split in two, roasted over the coals, and discussed. On first sitting down to partake of the evening repast, I found myself attacked on every aide by a diminutive black mosquito, which, though small, was not to be laughed at. With its sucker it penetrated not only the two shirts I wore -- an under shirt of merino, with a Crimean shirt over it -- but also managed to stir me up occasionally through a pair of stout moleskin trousers, irritating me at last to such an extent that we put a lot of green bushes on the fire and sat down to finish our tea in the smoke thus created. Mentioning duck, roasted, grilled, or devilled, no doubt gives you an idea of a very exquisite dish, and with the ordinary Sydney accompaniment of sage, onions, and the other et ceteras I have myself partaken of the same with considerable complacency; but eaten in the smoke of a green log fire, with a running defence against the attacks of the mosquitoes which alighted upon any spot over which the smoke did not pass, -- not cooked in a manner to please the disciple of a Soyer, and seasoned with black charcoal and ashes, it was certainly not the exquisite dish that an epicurean would have desired. However, a good appetite -- and we have all good appetites here, for we are constantly in the open air, day and night, and constantly taking exercise -- gave a relish to the duck, that not even the far famed Harvey, of sauce notoriety could have equalled, and we not only polished off the body but also"chawed up"
the bones in regular Kentucky style. Supper being ended, we stretched out for a comfortable smoke, but our tiny persecutors became so pertinacious in their attacks that all the comfort departed I from the weed, and we had ultimately to beat a retreat to the boat, over which we rigged the sail tent fashion, and encased ourselves in our blankets as in a fortress of defence. I need hardly say that I was soon fast asleep; but I was not doomed to get over my persecutions so easily. I was suddenly awakened from a direful dream, in which I fancied that an alligator had tried to get into the boat, and, in so doing had put his immense paw upon my head, -- by a terrible crash and an explosion. I tried to start up, but could not, for my head was crushed down into my shoulder by the sidelong position of the boat, and my heels were raised up in the air. For an instant I fancied that my dream was true, and that the boat was really capsizing, whilst an unmistakeable pain in the forehead from a blow rendered me certain that I had been struck. With some floundering I got on to my knees, and then I found that we had left our boat too close to the edge of the reeds on landing at high water, and that the receding tide had left her all but dry, and had thus heeled her over. The blow and the explosion had both come from our guns which we had laid over the thwarts of the boat, and which had rolled down on, top of me, when the boat went over, one of them going over by coming in contact -- not with my head -- but with some of the timbers of the boat. This was the last annoyance of the night, the remainder of which passed over as all nights do when men are fast asleep; and with the first light of morning we started on the prosecution of our journey. We followed the eastern channel, through which the river narrowed very perceptibly, the island banks being low and marshy, with large swamps extending over it. In this style it proceeds for about three miles, when a spot called "The Narrows" is reached. Here the river has broken through a long neck of land, forming it into small islets, between which, except in one place there is barely passage for a boat; and I was informed that, in dry seasons, persons could pass here almost dryfooted. From here to the end of the island, the right hand bank of the stream is low, and very thickly wooded, every flood overrunning this part of the country very extensively, and causing, under the heat of a tropical sun, a luxuriance of vegetation that is only to be equalled elsewhere under a similar conjunction of circumstances. All along the river, the banks and the adjacent shores were covered with a long reedy-looking succulent grass, which would furnish excellent food for cattle whilst green. Passing the end of the island, and coming into the main stream, we found the river again widened out into a magnificent sheet of water, overhung on each side with immense tea-trees, which projected far into the water below. These trees are very different from the stunted small-leaved specimens of the genus that are to be found in Sydney. In size they rival the giant productions of some of our southern brushes, whilst their leaves are long, straight, and pendant, the leaf bearing twigs drooping down from the boughs in the same style as the weeping willow, which tree in appearance the tea-tree of the Fitzroy very much resembles. On the extremity of these twigs, and generally within six or seven feet of the water, were numerous nests of the Tailor bird -- very beautiful specimens of bird architecture, being formed by inter-twining the leaves of the tree with small twigs, moss, hair, and the softest bark of the tea-tree. The entrance to the nest is, from the upper end, and it is covered with a long projecting eave, which secures the young birds from rain. They are placed in this position to prevent the snakes and goanas -- both of very large size -- which infest the river banks, from regaling themselves upon the eggs or young therein deposited. In addition to these, I observed in several places where the river was bare and precipitous, and where portions of it had been washed out or fallen, thus forming a hollow, that very large numbers of a very small kind of marten had congregated together, all busily engaged in constructing their nests of mud, which were ranged in long close lines, on the roof of the hollow. The little creatures were all occupied at their work, some at the water's edge working up and tempering the day, others clinging to the half formed nests, beating in with their wings the morsels of clay already prepared, and keeping up the while a continual twittering. Besides these, there were numerous nests of other birds of the larger kind, built high up in the trees. At this part of the river I also remarked, for the first time, a very beautiful tree, which got more and more frequent as we mounted the stream; it has a large bright leaf, very much resembling that of the fig in shape, but rather darker in colour. The branches spread out almost at right angles from the trunk, but instead of being in a series of rings like the fir, they are alternate, getting shorter as they reach the top. Through this magnificent scenery we travelled for a distance of nine miles, our boatmen pulling against a strong down current, owing to a recent fresh in the river, and we landed on an extensive bank of sand and pebbles to get breakfast. Here was found a rich collection of stones and pebbles that would have gladdened the heart of a geologist. The spot was low, and had been cut up into numerous channels by repeated floods, which on subsiding had left three large banks of debris that had perhaps travelled down hundreds of miles from some of the many tributaries of the stream. We made a collection of stones, and tried to shoot some of the many cockatoos that we saw about, but "pretty cocky," like the ducks, was too wide awake for us, and we only dropped one, and he managed to get away from us in the long grass, through which we were afraid to venture far, as it was so long that at a distance of ten or twelve feet it was impossible to see each other. We had to content ourselves therefore with bacon and cheese for breakfast, but our matutinal journey had sharpened our appetite to such an extent, that anything, however humble, that had offered would have been speedily disposed of. We once more embarked; the business of pulling the boat up against the fresh becoming now a very serious one, more especially where narrows occurred, the current in such places running down so swiftly as to give our two men as much as they could do to make head against it. At the end of the low sandy point, where we breakfasted, the first rapids occur -- the river being here narrowed to about one-third of its ordinary width. A long pull and strong pull was necessary to get us over this difficulty, and then we had before us for a distance of nine or ten miles, the same broad sheet of water -- the same bold banks, and the same luxuriant vegetation that had characterised our previous progress. There would have been a sameness in the unvaried richness of the shore on either side, were it not that at intervals creeks made their way in through the high banks, breaking them up, sometimes into small islets, sometimes into long jutting peninsulas, and always forming mimic deltas, upon which vegetation was most wild and profuse. Here and there, too, deep bays occur; their placid waters, which the current does not reach; having a surface smooth and polished as a sheet of glass. After these nine or ten miles had been passed over, we reached the Alligator Creek, which runs in a straight line, into the Fitzroy, the river itself making a strong bend towards the west. At its embouchure, Alligator Creek is very nearly as wide a stream as the Fitzroy, and being more directly in a line with the previous course of the river than the river itself, it has been on more than one occasion mistaken for the main stream. After leaving Alligator Greek, the northern bank of the river rises up bold and precipitous fully fifty feet above the level of the water, maintaining this elevation the whole of the way to the landing place, a distance of six or seven miles. In this space the rapids and narrows are of frequent occurrence, the navigation being rendered still more difficult by snags and shallows. Through all these perils and dangers which beset the river track, more particularly during time of flood, we reached the landing place in safety, between four and five o'clock.