15th July.
Leaving our camp at 7.10 a.m., steered north-east till 9.0, over level
country, which appeared to be very swampy in the rainy season; altered
the course to 10 degrees magnetic, and crossed a small dry watercourse
which proved to be a continuation of Elsey Creek. At 11.0 turned 60
degrees magnetic, and shortly came on the bank of a fine river with banks
thirty to forty feet high, and fine reaches of water fifty to eighty
yards wide; at 11.45 camped at the junction of Elsey Creek and the river,
which appears to be the Roper of Dr. Leichhardt. The fan-palm was
frequently seen on the banks of Elsey Creek, where it obtained a height
of fifty to eighty feet, and had a thicker stem and produced a more
palatable vegetable than the species growing on the banks of the Victoria
River.