It Is But
Justice To Say That In These Trying Situations We Received Much
Assistance From Mr. Thomas Swaine Who With Great Kindness Waited For Us
With The Boat Under His Charge At Such Places As He Apprehended Would Be
Most Difficult To Pass.
We encamped at sunset, completely jaded with
toil.
Our distance made good this day was twelve miles and a quarter.
The labours of the 16th commenced at half-past five, and for some time
the difficulty of getting the boats over the rapids was equal to what we
experienced the day before. Having passed a small brook however, termed
Halfway Creek, the river became deeper and although rapid it was smooth
enough to be named by our Orkney boatmen Stillwater. We were further
relieved by the Company's clerks consenting to take a few boxes of our
stores into their boats. Still we made only eleven miles in the course of
the day.
The banks of Hill River are higher and have a more broken outline than
those of Steel or Hayes Rivers. The cliffs of alluvial clay rose in some
places to the height of eighty or ninety feet above the stream and were
surmounted by hills about two hundred feet high, but the thickness of the
wood prevented us from seeing far beyond the mere banks of the river.
September 17.
About half-past five in the morning we commenced tracking and soon came
to a ridge of rock which extended across the stream. From this place the
boat was dragged up several narrow rocky channels until we came to the
Rock Portage where the stream, pent in by a range of small islands, forms
several cascades.
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