d Dig, a phial in which I
placed a paper containing a brief statement of the circumstances under
which we had arrived there, and our proposed route to the depot, adding
also the names of the men with me. As the ground was soft it was not
necessary to dig but merely to drop the phial into a hole made with the
scabbard of my sabre; and I hoped that the bottle would escape in
consequence the notice of the natives.

EFFECT OF ALTERNATE FLOODS THERE.

The greater width and apparently important character of the Darling near
its mouth may perhaps be accounted for by supposing that floods do not
always occur in it and the Murray at the same time. The remoteness of the
sources of the two rivers and the consequent difference of climate may
occasion a flood in the one, while the waters of the other may be very
low. That this is likely to happen sometimes may be inferred from the
difference between the relative state of the atmosphere on the eastern
coast and on the Darling. This difference seems to have been so
considerable during the last journey as materially to have affected our
barometrical measurements taken simultaneously with observations at
Sydney. When the bed of the greater river is also the deepest any flood
descending by the other channel when the larger stream is low must flow
with greater force into that which is deeper, and in a soft and yielding
soil may thus increase the width of its own channel. On the contrary a
flood coming down the greater river while the minor channel may happen to
be dry must first flow upwards some miles and so fill this channel and,
being thus affected both by the rising and subsidence of the greater
stream, this process would have had a tendency to deepen and widen the
lower part of the Darling.

CHAPTER 3.6.

Return along the bank of the Murray.
Mount Lookout.
Appearance of rain.
Chance of being cut off from the depot by the river floods.
A savage man at home.
Tributaries of the Murray.
A storm in the night.
Traverse the land of lagoons before the floods come down.
Traces of many naked feet along our old track.
Camp of 400 natives.
Narrow escape from the floods of the river.
Piper overtakes two youths fishing in Lake Benanee.
Description of the lake.
Great rise in the waters of the Murray.
Security of the depot.
Surrounded by inundations.
Cross to it in a bark canoe made by Tommy Came-last.
Search for the junction of the Murrumbidgee and Murray.
Mr. Stapylton reaches the j