RETURN DOWN THE ALBERT. 321 



In the whole continent there exists no point of 

 departure to be compared with the head of the 

 Albert. The expedition should, as I have before 

 remarked, go to Investigator Road, fulfilling my 

 prediction of the ultimate importance of that port, 

 which lies onlj twenty-seven miles N. N. W. from 

 the entrance. Here the flat-bottomed boats, taken 

 out in frame, for the purpose of carrying up the 

 camels, should be put together, and towed from 

 thence to the river. 



A shout from Brown, who, alarmed at my length- 

 ened absence, had come in search of me, roused me 

 from the reverie in which I was indulging, and 

 which had carried me rolling along on the back of 

 a camel, girded round with an anti-pleurisy belt, 

 over many miles of the new lands of Australia. 

 Returning with him I rejoined the rest of the party, 

 and we all moved back in the silence that usually 

 succeeds great excitement, towards the boats. Mr. 

 Forsyth having made the necessary observations for 

 latitude, we were soon following the downward 

 course of the Albert. 



We reached the mouth before daylight on the 

 6th. This was the coldest morning we had expe- 

 rienced; the thermometer being at 51° with a 

 strong breeze from S. S. E., which rendered some- 

 what dangerous the task of collecting the requisite 

 soundings on the bar at the mouth ; the gig being 

 once or twice nearlv half filled in doin^ so. Behind 

 the eastern entrance point, was seen a large light- 



VOL. II. Y 



