ater, fasten a rope to one end of the steamer, and take the other end
through the block attached to the tree and thence back aboard a second
steamer; then they carry a rope similarly from the other end through the
block on the second tree, and aboard a third boat. At a given signal
one boat leaves for Wentworth, and the other starts for the Queensland
border. The consequence is that craft number one climbs the bank
amid the cheers of the local loafers, who congregate and watch the
proceedings with great interest and approval. The crew pitch tents, and
set to work on the hull, which looks like a big, rough shallow box.

. . . . .

We once travelled on the Darling for a hundred miles or so on a boat
called the 'Mud Turtle'--at least, that's what WE called her. She might
reasonably have haunted the Mississippi fifty years ago. She didn't seem
particular where she went, or whether she started again or stopped
for good after getting stuck. Her machinery sounded like a chapter of
accidents and was always out of order, but she got along all the same,
provided the steersman kept her off the bank.

Her skipper was a young man, who looked more like a drover than a
sailor, and the crew bore a greater resemblance to the unemployed than
to any other body we know of, except that they looked a little
more independent. They seemed clannish, too, with an unemployed or
free-labour sort of isolation. We have an idea that they regarded our
personal appearance with contempt.

. . . . .

Above Louth we picked up a "whaler", who came aboard for the sake of
society and tobacco. Not that he hoped to shorten his journey; he had no
destination. He told us many reckless and unprincipled lies, and gave
us a few ornamental facts. One of them took our fancy, and impressed
us--with its beautiful simplicity, I suppose. He said: "Some miles
above where the Darlin' and the Warrygo runs inter each other, there's a
billygong runnin' right across between the two rivers and makin' a sort
of tryhangular hyland; 'n' I can tel'yer a funny thing about it." Here
he paused to light his pipe. "Now," he continued, impressively, jerking
the match overboard, "when the Darlin's up, and the Warrygo's LOW,
the billygong runs from the Darlin' into the WARRYGO; AND, when the
Warrygo's up 'n' the Darlin's down, the waters runs FROM the Warrygo 'n'
inter the Darlin'."

What could be more simple?

The steamer was engaged to go up a billabong fo