106 JUNCTION OF THE GWYDIR. [cH. V. 



we had slept, we made the Gwydh*. The course of this 

 river was as tortuous as at our last camp upon it, which could 

 not be distant more than fourteen or fifteen miles. The 

 volume of water was so much reduced, that in shallows, 

 where alone the current could be perceived, I could step across 

 it. This stream could not, therefore, contribute much to 

 that I was tracing, and in search of which I now turned 

 westward. On this course, the windings of the Gwydir 

 often came in my way, so that I turned to north 25° east, in 

 which direction, I at length reached the large river, which 

 had been the object of our excursion. Here it was, indeed, 

 a noble sheet of water, and I regretted much, that this had 

 not been our first view of it, that we might have realized, at 

 least for a day or two, all that we had imagined of " tJie 

 Kindur." I now overlooked, from a bank seventy feet high, 

 a river as broad as the Thames at Putney ; and on which the 

 goodly waves, perfectly free from fallen timber, danced in 

 full liberty. A singular looking diving-bird, carrying only 

 its head above water, gave a novel appearance to this co- 

 jjious reservoir : and there was a rich alluvial flat on the 

 opposite bank. 



1 could not, however, perceive much current in these 

 waters, and I traced the stream downwards, anxious to dis- 

 cover that this breadth and magnitude continued ; but I was 

 undeceived on arriving at a slight fall, where the river was 

 traversed by another rocky dyke, similar to those seen higher 

 up, and over which it fell in a small body like that in the 

 rapid, near the camp. Below this fall, the river bore no 

 such imposing appearance, but assumed that which it wore 

 at the various places, where we had visited its banks, much 

 liigher up the stream. The meandering Gwydir terminated 

 in this river, a little way below the fall ; and I could not 

 perceive any difference in the appearance of the larger chan- 

 nel below that junction.* 



*Thc situation of tliis jimctioii, aflonlrd a curious illustration of the prin- 

 <ij)lu which guided inc in clioosing my route from the great Nanunoy Lagoon 



