comparative darkness, under a close arch of trees, and a danger was hardly
seen ere we were hurried past it, almost without the possibility of
avoiding it. The reach at the head of which we stopped, was crowded with
the trunks of trees, the branches of which crossed each other in every
direction, nor could I hope, after a minute examination of the channel,
to succeed in taking the boats safely down so intricate a passage.

DANGEROUS NAVIGATION OF THE 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