LABOUR IN RECOVERING ARTICLES LOST. 77 
and then used the oars on either side of her, to feel along the 
bottom of the river, in hopes that by these means we should 
strike upon the articles we had lost. However unlikely 
such a measure was to prove successful, we recovered in the 
course of the afternoon, every thing but the still-head, and 
a cask of paint. Whenever the oar struck against the 
substance that appeared, by its sound or feel to belong to us, 
it was immediately pushed into the sand, and the upper end 
of the oar being held by two men, another descended by it 
to the bottom of the river, remaining under water as long 
as he could, to ascertain what was immediately within arm’s 
length of him. This work was, as may be imagined, most 
laborious, and the men at length became much exhausted. 
They would not, however, give up the search for the still head, 
more especially after M‘Leay, in diving, had descended 
upon it. Had he, by ascertaining his position, left it to us 
to heave it up, our labours would soon have ended; but, 
in his anxiety for its recovery, he tried to bring it up, when 
finding it too heavy, he let it go, and the current again 
swept it away. 
At sunset, we were obliged to relinquish our task, the 
men complaining of violent head-aches, which the nature 
of the day increased. Thinking our own efforts would 
be unavailing, I directed two of the men to go up the river 
for the blacks, at day-light in the morning, and set the reeds 
on fire to attract their notice. The day had been cloudy 
and sultry in the afternoon, the clouds collecting in the 
N. E. ; we heard the distant thunder, and expected to have 
