the night scenery being almost more beautiful than the day. The heavens
seemed more deep, the water more glittering, the trees more graceful and
feathery; and here and there a tall palm reared its thin and spectral
form above the dense foliage through which the moonlight broke at
intervals, and fell, as it were, in showers of silver on the placid
waters.

Nearly seven miles had been traversed in the same South-West 1/2 South
direction, when our hopes of proceeding further were suddenly for a time
destroyed, by the appearance of a dense woody mass ahead. A little
further on, the moon peering through the matted foliage showed one branch
of the river turning off to the southward, whilst another, in the mouth
of which we found ourselves, trended west. The lead giving the great
depth of six fathoms, we were induced to follow the latter. Utter
darkness soon surrounded us; the trees, on either side, over-shadowing
the river, which in this branch was not eighty yards wide.

PROGRESS IMPEDED.

Our progress, also, at length began to be impeded by fallen or sunken
trees, which not only rendered the ascent dangerous, but at the end of
about two miles fairly brought us to a standstill, and forbade our
further advance. This detention was a bitter disappointment to us all,
and we crept into our blanket-bags with disgust, but with the hope that
in the morning a passage might still be found.

August 4.

Daylight brought no better hopes of our taking the boats higher up by
this branch, as a succession of large trees lay across it a quarter of a