190 CURRENT OF THE MURRAY. 
camp of the 2nd February, from which it will be remem- 
bered the Murray took up a southerly course, and from 
which we likewise obtained a first view of the coast 
ranges. The journey to the sea and back again, had con- 
sequently occupied us twenty days. From this point we 
turned our boat’s head homewards ; we made it, therefore, 
a fixed position among the stages into which we divided 
our journey. Our attention was now directed to the junc- 
tion of the principal tributary, which we hoped to reach in 
twelve days, and anticipated a close to our labours on the 
Murray in eight days more from that stage to the Morum- 
bidgee. 
The current in the Murray from the lake, to within a 
short distance of this singular turn in it, is weak, since its 
bed is almost on a level with the lake. The channel, which, 
at the termination, is somewhat more than the third of a 
mile across, gradually diminishes in breadth, as the interior 
is gained, but is no where under 300 yards ; while its depth 
averages from eighteen to thirty feet, within a foot of the 
very bank. The river might, therefore, be navigated by boats 
of considerable burden, if the lake admitted of the same 
facility ; but I am decidedly of opinion, that the latter is 
generally shallow, and that it will, in the course of years, be 
filled up by depositions. It is not, however, an estuary m 
any sense of the word, since no part of it is exposed at low 
water, excepting the flats in the channel, and the flat be- 
tween the lake and the sea. 
On the 23rd, we stove the boat in for the first time. 
