86 
JUNCTION OF A LARGE RIVER. 
edge. At 3 p. m., Hopkinson called out that we were ap- 
proaching a junction, and in less than a minute afterwards, 
we were hurried into a broad and noble river. 
It is impossible for me to describe the effect of so instan- 
taneous a change of circumstances upon us. The boats 
were allowed to drift along at pleasure, and such was the 
force with which we had been shot out of the Morumbidgee, 
that we were carried nearly to the bank opposite its em- 
bouchure, whilst we continued to gaze in silent astonish- 
ment on the capacious channel we had entered ; and when 
we looked for that by which we had been led into it, we 
could hardly believe that the insignificant gap that pre- 
sented itself to us was, indeed, the termination of the beau- 
tiful and noble stream, whose course we had thus success- 
fully followed. I can only compare the relief we experienced 
to that which the seaman feels on weathering the rock upon 
which he expected his vessel would have struck — to the 
calm which succeeds moments of feverish anxiety, when the 
dread of danger is succeeded by the certainty of escape. 
To myself personally, the discovery of this river was a cir- 
cumstance of a particularly gratifying nature, since it not 
only confirmed the justness of my opinion as to the ultimate 
fate of the Morumbidgee, and bore me out in the apparently 
rash and hasty step I had taken at the depot, but assured 
me of ultimate success in the duty I had to perform. We 
had got on the high road, as it were, either to the south 
coast, or to some important outlet ; and the appearance of 
the river itself was such as to justify our most sanguine 
