favourable for the cattle to get out; this being a object of much
importance.

RECEPTION BY THE NATIVES OF THE LEFT BANK.

I was met as favourably by the natives on this first passage of the
Murray as I had been on our first approach to the Murrumbidgee. A small
tribe came forward and laid a number of newly-made nets at my feet. I
declined accepting anything however save a beautifully wrought bag,
telling the owner through Piper that when the party should have passed to
that side I would give him a tomahawk in return for it.

PASSAGE OF THE MURRAY.

As soon as the day had become rather warm we endeavoured to swim the
bullocks across by driving them into the water at the mouth of the basin
where the river seemed most accessible. But the bank was soft and muddy,
and the animals, when driven into the water, got upon an island in a
shallow part, whence they could not be dislodged, much less compelled to
swim from it to the opposite shore. Not a little time was thus lost,
while only a few could be drawn over by ropes attached to the boats; and
by which process one was accidentally drowned. This was owing to the
injudicious conduct of one of the men (Webb) who gave the animal rope
instead of holding its head close aboard, so as to keep the mouth at
least above water. The drivers then represented that the rest of the
bullocks had been too long in the water to be able to cross before the
next day but, having first tried their plan, I now determined to try my
own; and I directed them to take the cattle to the steepest portion of
the bank, overhanging the narrow part of the river, and just opposite to
the few bullocks which had already gained the opposite shore.
Notwithstanding the weakness of the animals this measure succeeded for,
on driving them down the steep bank so that they fell into the water, the
whole at once turned their heads to the opposite shore and reached it in
safety. We next swam the horses over by dragging each separately at the
stern of a boat, taking care to hold the head above water. Thus by sunset
everything except one or two carts and the boat-carriage had been safely
got across.

The natives beyond the Murray were differently-behaved people from those
of the Darling for, although one group sat beside that portion of our
party which was still on the right bank, another, at a point of the
opposite shore to the eastward of our new camp, and a third near my tent
in the neck of a peninsula on which I fou