MORUMBIDGEE.

We rose in the morning with feelings of apprehension, and uncertainty;
and, indeed, with great doubts on our minds whether we were not thus
early destined to witness the wreck, and the defeat of the expedition.
The men got slowly and cautiously into the boat, and placed themselves
so as to leave no part of her undefended. Hopkinson stood at the bow,
ready with poles to turn her head from anything upon which she might be
drifting. Thus prepared, we allowed her to go with the stream. By
extreme care and attention on the part of the men we passed this
formidable barrier. Hopkinson in particular exerted himself, and more
than once leapt from the boat upon apparently rotten logs of wood, that
I should not have judged capable of bearing his weight, the more
effectually to save the boat. It might have been imagined that where
such a quantity of timber had accumulated, a clearer channel would have
been found below, but such was not the case. In every reach we had to
encounter fresh difficulties. In some places huge trees lay athwart the
stream, under whose arched branches we were obliged to pass; but,
generally speaking, they had been carried, roots foremost, by the
current, and, therefore, presented so many points to receive us, that,
at the rate at which we were going, had we struck full upon any one of
them, it would have gone through and through the boat. About noon we
stopped to repair, or rather to take down the remains of our awning,
which had been torn away; and to breathe a moment from the state of
apprehension and anxiety in which our minds had been kept during the
morning. About one, we again started. The men looked anxiously out
ahead; for the singular change in the river had impressed on them an
idea, that we were approaching its termination, or near some adventure.
On a sudden, the river took a general southern direction, but, in its
tortuous course, swept round to every point of the compass with the
greatest irregularity. We were carried at a fearful rate down its
gloomy and contracted banks, and, in such a moment of excitement, had
little time to pay attention to the country through which we were
passing. It was, however, observed, that chalybeate-springs were
numerous close to the water's edge. At 3 p.m., Hopkinson called out
that we were approaching a junction, and in less than a minute
afterwards, we were hurried into a broad and noble river.

JUNCTION OF A LARGE RIVER--CHARACTER OF THE RIVER.