262 APPENDIX NO. II. 
and allowed us to pass unmolested. The boat, however, 
almost immediately grounded on a shoal that stretched 
across the river, over which she was with some difficulty 
hauled into deeper water, — when we found ourselves op- 
posite to a large junction from the eastward, little inferior to 
the river itself. Had I been aware of this circumstance, I 
should have been the more anxious with regard to any rup- 
ture with the natives, and I was now happy to find that 
most of them had laid aside their weapons and had crossed 
the junction, it appearing that they had previously been on 
a tongue of land formed by the two streams. I therefore 
landed among them to satisfy their curiosity and to distri- 
bute a few presents before I proceeded up it. We were 
obliged to use the four oars to stem the current against us ; 
but, as soon as we had passed the mouth, got into deepei 
water, and found easier pulling. The parallel in which we 
struck it, and the direction from which it came, combined 
to assure me that this could be no other than the Dar- 
ling’ To the distance of two miles it retained a breadth 
of one hundred yards and a depth of twelve feet. Its 
banks were covered with verdure, and the trees overhang- 
ing them were of finer and larger growth than those on the 
new river by which we had approached it. Its waters had 
a shade of green, and were more turbid than those of its 
neighbours, but they were perfectly sweet to the taste. 
Having satisfied myself on those points on which I was 
most anxious, we returned to the junction to examine it 
more closely. 
The angle formed by the Darling with the new river is 
so acute, that neither can be said to be tributary to the 
other ; but more important circumstances, upon which it is 
