ASCENT OF THE FITZ-ROY. 149 



neath its treacherous surface ; and sometimes, after 

 almost gaining the summit, sliding back again to 

 the base. All parental care seemed for the 

 moment lost in the overwhelming sense of pre- 

 sent danger, caused by the strange and unknown 

 spectacle thus suddenly presented to the gaze of 

 these poor savages. Our white faces, curious gar- 

 ments, moving boats, the regular motions and un- 

 accustomed sounds of our heavy oars, must indeed 

 have filled them with amazement. I have since 

 frequently remarked, that our oars created more 

 wonder, or alarm, among the various tribes who 

 first learnt through us the existence of their white 

 brethren, than almost any other instrument of which 

 they could at all understand the use ; perhaps, as 

 they propel their frail rafts with a spear, they 

 jumped to the conclusion, that our oars were also 

 immense spears, which, being their chief weapons, 

 must have given us a formidable appearance. We 

 noticed, among the trees on the banks of this 

 natural canal, two varieties of the palm ; both kinds 

 had been observed by Mr. Brown in the Gulf of 

 Carpentaria, during Captain Flinders' voyage. 



At the end of this reach, which extended for a 

 mile and a half in a S.E. by S. direction, the 

 river was scarcely 50 yards wide, and the depth had 

 decreased from 12 to 6 feet; the current, scarcely 

 perceptible in the deep water, now ran wdth a velo- 

 city of from one to two miles per hour. Here, 

 therefore, the Fitz-Roy may be said to assume all 



