146 
CHART OF THE RIVER. 
course the river would take, since it would prove whether 
the little old man had played us false or not. From the 
cliffs under which we had slept, it held a direct N.W. 
course for two or three miles. It then turned suddenly to 
the S.E., and gradually came round to E.N.E., so that 
after two hours pulling, we found ourselves just opposite to 
the spot from which we had started, the neck of land that 
separated the channels not being more than 200 yards 
across. I have before noticed a bend similar to this, which 
the Murray makes, a little above the junction of the sup- 
posed Darling with it. 
It may appear strange to some of my readers, that I 
should have laid down the windings of the river so 
minutely. It may therefore be necessary for me to state 
that every bend of it was laid down by compass, and that 
the bearings of the angles as they opened were regularly 
marked by me, so that not a single winding or curve of 
the Murray is omitted in the large chart. The length of 
some of the reaches may be erroneous, but their direction is 
strictly correct. I always had a sheet of paper and the 
compass before me, and not only marked down the river line, 
but also the description of country nearest ; its most minute 
changes, its cliffs, its flats, the kind of country back from it, 
its lagoons, the places at which the tribes assembled, its 
junctions, tributaries and creeks, together with our several 
positions, were all regularly noted, so that on our return up 
the river we had no difficulty in ascertaining upon what 
part of it we were, by a reference to the chart ; and it proved 
