tmost
difficulty that we stemmed it with the four oars upon the boat, and the
exertion of our whole strength. We remained, at one time, perfectly
stationary, the force we employed and that of the current being equal.
We at length ran up the stream obliquely; but it was evident the men
were not adequate to such exertion for any length of time. We pulled
that day for eleven successive hours, in order to avoid a tribe of
natives who followed us. Hopkinson and Fraser fell asleep at their
oars, and even the heavy Clayton appeared to labour.

We again occupied our camp under the first remarkable cliffs of the
Murray, a description of which has been given in page 128 of this work.
[GEOLOGICAL EXAMINATION.] Their summit, as I have already remarked
forms a table land of some elevation. From it the distant interior to
the S.S.E. appears very depressed; that to the north undulates more. In
neither quarter, however, does any bright foliage meet the eye, to tell
that a better soil is under it; but a dark and gloomy vegetation
occupies both the near and distant ground, in proof that the sandy
sterile tracts, succeeding the river deposits, stretch far away without
a change.

A little above our camp of the 28th of January, we fell in with a large
tribe of natives, whose anxiety to detain us was remarkable. The wind,
however, which, from the time we lost the sea breezes, had hung to the
S.E., had changed to the S.W., and we were eagerly availing ourselves
of it. It will not be supposed we stopped even for a moment. In truth
we pressed on with great success, and did not land to sleep until nine
o'clock. As long as the wind blew from the S.W., the days were cool,
and the sky overcast even so much so as to threaten rain.

The least circumstance, in our critical situation, naturally raised my
apprehensions, and I feared the river would be swollen in the event of
any heavy rains in the hilly country; I hoped, however, we should gain
the Morumbidgee before such a calamity should happen to us, and it
became my object to press for that river without delay.

OBSTACLES TO THE NAVIGATION--DANGEROUS RAPIDS.

Although we had met with frequent rapids in our progress upwards, they
had not been of a serious kind, nor such as would affect the navigation
of the river. The first direct obstacle of this kind occurs a little
above a small tributary that falls into the Murray from the north,
between the Rufus and the cliffs we have alluded to. At this p