176 
DIFFICULTIES OF THE RETURN. 
not feel myself justified, considering the gigantic task we 
had before us, to impose additional labour upon them. 
It will be borne in mind that our difficulties were just 
about to commence, when those of most other travellers 
have ceased ; and that instead of being assisted by the 
stream whose course we had followed, we had now to con- 
tend against the united waters of the eastern ranges, with 
diminished strength, and, in some measure, with dis- 
appointed feelings. 
Under the most favourable circumstances, it was impro- 
bable that the men would be enabled to pull for many days 
longer in succession ; since they had not rested upon their 
oars for a single day, if I except our passage across the 
lake, from the moment when we started from the depot; 
nor was it possible for me to buoy them up with the hope 
even of a momentary cessation from labour. We had cal- 
culated the time to which our supply of provisions would 
last under the most favourable circumstances, and it was 
only in the event of our pulling up against the current, day 
after day, the same distance we had compassed with the 
current in our favour, that we could hope they would last 
us as long as we continued in the Murray. But in the 
event of floods, or any unforeseen delay, in was impossible 
to calculate at what moment we might be driven to ex- 
tremity. 
Independent of these casualties, there were other circum- 
stances of peril to be taken into consideration. As I have 
already observed, I foresaw great danger in again running 
