I had now become quite an adept in this kind of sport.

My plan was to direct a man to walk along near the river, where they are generally found, whilst I kept considerably above him and a little in advance, so that all those that were started running up from the bank in the curved direction, habitual with all kangaroos, passed within shot.) The height we visited was of coarse sandstone formation, and attained an elevation of 150 feet.

As I was left to examine some parts of the river which had been passed in the night, I had a further opportunity of determining the value, and estimating the fertility of Whirlwind Plains.
My examination only confirmed my previous conjectures in favour of the capabilities of the soil.

From what I had seen at Port Essington, as ground considered favourable for the growth of cotton, there can be no doubt that on these plains it would thrive much better; but the soil on the Victoria is of too fertile a character to bear any comparison with that of Cobourg Peninsula.
SILK COTTON-TREE.
At Reach Hopeless, and at other points of the important stream I am describing we observed numerous specimens of a kind of silk cotton-tree (Bombax): the diameter was sometimes as great as twenty inches; and it not unfrequently rose to the height of twenty or thirty feet, though generally shorter.

The pods were of an oval shape, and about two inches and a half in length; each pod was in three divisions and full of a silky cotton, with the seeds not imbedded but held at the extremity of the fibres.