On two sides the view was bounded by lofty cliffs, from three to four hundred feet high, lightly wooded at their summits, and broken by wide openings, into which ran arms of the sea, forming gloomy channels of communication with the interior country; whilst on each side of their entrances the huge cliffs rose, like the pillars of some gigantic portal.
In front of us lay a smooth sandy beach, beyond which rose gradually a high wooded country, and behind us was the sea, studded with numerous islands of every variety of form.
ENTRANCE TO PRINCE REGENT'S RIVER.
I was too much tired by the fatigues of the night before to enjoy the scene with the full delight I should otherwise have done; the bruises I had received made me feel so stiff and sore that the slightest movement was painful; the rainy season was however now so near that it would not do to lose a single day of preparation.

Directly after breakfast therefore, whilst one boat went off to search for fresh water and a convenient spot to land the stores at, I accompanied the Captain of the vessel in another up Prince Regent's River.
EFFECT OF TIDES.
In general the openings to these rivers from the sea are very narrow, forming gorges which terminate in extensive basins, some fifteen or twenty miles inland; the levels of these reservoirs are subject to be raised thirty-seven feet by every tide through their funnel-like entrances, along which the waters consequently pour with a velocity of which it is difficult to form any adequate idea.

By such a tide were we swept along as we entered this river by its southern mouth.
On each side of us rose lofty red sandstone cliffs; sometimes quite precipitous, sometimes, from ancient landslips, shelving gradually down to the water, and at these points covered with a dense tropical vegetation.
GREEN ANTS.
At several such places we landed, but always found the ascent to the interior so covered with large loose rocks that it would have been impossible to have disembarked stores or stock on any.

The thickness of the vegetation made it difficult to force a way through, and whenever, in attempting so to do, a tree was shaken, numbers of a large green sort of ant fell from the boughs on the unhappy trespasser and, making the best of their way to the back of his neck, gave warning by a series of most painful bites that he was encroaching on their domain.

Yet it was sometimes ludicrous to see one of the party momentarily stamping and roaring with pain, as he cried out to a companion to hasten and assist him in getting rid of an enemy at once so diminutive and so troublesome.
PARRAKEETS.
We saw a great number of beautiful parakeets, as well as a remarkable hawk of a bright cinnamon colour, with a milk-white head and neck.