OF THE MORUMBIDGEE. 
85 
than once leapt from the boat upon apparently rotten logs 
of wood, that I should not have judged capable of bearing 
his weight, the more effectually to save the boat. It might 
have been imagined that where such a quantity of timber 
had accumulated, a clearer channel would have been found 
below, but such was not the case. In every reach we had 
to encounter fresh difficulties. In some places huge trees 
lay athwart the stream, under whose arched branches we 
were obliged to pass ; but, generally speaking, they had 
been carried, roots foremost, by the current, and, therefore, 
presented so many points to receive us, that, at the rate at 
which we were going, had we struck full upon any one of 
them, it would have gone through and through the boat. 
About noon we stopped to repair, or rather to take down 
the remains of our awning, which had been torn away ; and 
to breathe a moment from the state of apprehension and 
anxiety in which our minds had been kept during the morn- 
ing. About one, we again started. The men looked anx- 
iously out a-head ; for the singular change in the river had 
impressed on them an idea, that we were approaching its 
termination, or near some adventure. On a sudden, the river 
took a general southern direction, but, in its toituous course, 
swept round to every point of the compass with the greatest 
irregularity. We were carried at a fearful rate down its 
gloomy and contracted banks, and, in such a moment of ex- 
citement, had little time to pay attention to the country 
through which we were passing. It was, however, observed, 
that chalybeate-springs were numerous close to the water’s 
