MR. OXLEy’s remarks. 
153 
into a central shoal sea. Mr. Oxley thus expresses him- 
self on the subject : — 
“ July 3d. Towards morning the storm abated, and at 
day-light, we proceeded on our voyage. The main bed of 
the river was much contracted, but very deep ; the waters 
spreading to the depth of a foot or eighteen inches over the 
banks, but all running on the same point of bearing. We 
met with considerable interruptions from fallen timber, 
which in places nearly choaked up the channel. After 
going about twenty miles, we lost the land and trees ; the 
channel of the river, which lay through reeds, and was from 
one to three feet deep, ran northerly. — This continued for 
three or four miles farther, when, although there had been 
no previous change in the breadth, depth, or rapidity of the 
stream for several miles, and I was sanguine in my expec- 
tations of soon entering the long-sought-for Australian sea, 
it all at once eluded our farther pursuit, by spreading on 
every point from N. W. to N. E. among the ocean of reeds 
which surrounded us, still running with the same rapidity 
as before. There was no channel whatever among those 
reeds, and the depth varied from three to five feet. This 
astonishing change (for I cannot call it a termination of the 
river) of course left me no alternative but to endeavour to 
return to some spot on which we could effect a landing be- 
fore dark. I estimated, that during the day, we had gone 
about twenty-four miles, on nearly the same point of bear- 
ing as yesterday. To assert, positively, that we were on 
the margin of the lake, or sea, into which this great body 
