HISTORY OF FLOODS IN THE RIVER DARLING. 163 
the men eagerly descended to quench their thirst. Nor shall I 
ever forget the cry of amazement that followed their doing so, or 
the looks of terror sa ee ee which they out 
to inform me that water was so s to be unfit to drink. 
low its ordinary level, and its current was scarcely perceptible. 
Mr. Hume, with his usual perseverence, saan after walkin 
some distance, found a reef of rocks in the river, and on these 
very bed of the river, with a considerable stream gushing out. 
They were, however, brine springs, and I collected a quantity of 
salt from the brink of them 
And there the matter ended for os six and a half years. 
There was a great salt river in the west, and nothing more was 
heard of it until Sir Thomas Mitchell was sent out with a party 
fully equipped to follow down the mysterious river to the sea ; 
ut the time was badly chosen—in fact could not have been 
worse, for the river was too low for navigation even by — and 
he was obliged to turn back. is own account of it say 
Expedition into Eastern Australia, 
“June Ist, 1835. Embarked in our boats at Fort Bourke, and 
proceeded down the river, but were stopped by rocks, or rather 
hard clay ledge. After getting the beat over this found the river 
so full of rocks for a mile that we could not navigate it even in a 
small boat, so returned to camp same day. Then took to our 
horses next day, and explored the river for some miles. It was 
not so rocky lower down. In places it was too salt to drink, and 
in others quite fresh, and wi one place we found a spring of ‘fresh 
water running out of the si 
At page 226 he says, “ No , fresh water anywhere, except in the 
Darling.” 
But Sir Thomas was not to be put off without oes effort, 
and in 1836 he travelled on to the lower portion where it joins 
the Murray, only to find it dry enough to walk over. 
Sturt ss eno it again, strange to say, only to find it almost 
topped ru ing, and the third time when he came on to it in 
1843 it had ately ceased to flow, and was only a chain of 
ponds. 
Sturt, 1844, Expedition, Vol. 1, p. sist 
