160 AUSTRALIA AND THE AUSTRALIANS. 



a short prayer rose to Heaven, and we were again in 

 the rushing tide. My first sensation was warmth and 

 strength the water being warmer than the night air 

 so nourished my system that I felt like a giant in 

 strength, and almost supernatural power was expe- 

 rienced in dragging my young wife through the surg- 

 ing river. 



A difficulty was seen ahead, for a sharp bend in the 

 river had caused a whirlpool, which had excavated the 

 bank, leaving a perpendicular wall some forty feet 

 high. A glance into this whirlpool convinced me that 

 to enter it would be certain death, and the only escape 

 lay in slightly stemming the tide, and landing higher 

 up. This caused much extra exertion, and before 

 reaching land my wife was pulled several times under 

 water, which almost took away her hope of being 

 saved. Providentially, she retained perfect presence 

 of mind all through this trying ordeal, or in all proba- 

 bility both would have met with a watery grave. 



Our landing-place was quite unknown to us, as the 

 current had borne us, when in the canoe, beyond the 

 junction of the Isaacs and the Mackenzie rivers. A 

 dense scrub presented itself to us. My first thought 

 was to find my brother, but, having passed the junc- 

 tion this was impossible. We next struck into the 

 scrub, hoping to find a track to the Columbra cattle 



