In
getting the horse in here, he got bogged in a quicksand bank so
deeply as to be unable to stir, and we only succeeded in
extricating him by undermining him on the creek's side, and then
lugging him into the water. Having got all the things in safety, we
continued down the river bank, which bent about from east to west,
but kept a general north course. A great deal of the land was so
soft and rotten that the horse, with only a saddle and about
twenty-five pounds on his back, could scarcely walk over it. At a
distance of about five miles we again had him bogged in crossing a
small creek, after which he seemed so weak that we had great doubts
about getting him on. We, however, found some better ground close
to the water's edge, where the sandstone rock crops out, and we
stuck to it as far as possible. Finding that the river was bending
about so much that we were making very little progress in a
northerly direction, we struck off due north and soon came on some
table-land, where the soil is shallow and gravelly, and clothed
with box and swamp gums. Patches of the land were very boggy, but
the main portion was sound enough; beyond this we came on an open
plain, covered with water up to one's ankles.
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