passed the mouths of several large creeks that came from the north and
N.W., and the country in those directions seemed to be much intersected by
water-courses; while to the south it was extremely low. Having descended
several minor rapids, I greatly regretted that we had no barometer to
ascertain the actual dip of the interior. I computed, however, that we
were not more than from eighty to ninety feet above the level of the sea.
We found the channel of the Murray much encumbered with timber, and
noticed some banks of sand that were of unusual size, and equalled the
largest accumulations of it on the sea shore, both in extent and solidity.

STATE OF PROVISIONS.

We would gladly have fired into the flights of wild fowl that winged their
way over us, for we, about this time, began to feel the consequences of
the disaster that befell us in the Morumbidgee. The fresh water having got
mixed with the brine in the meat casks, the greater part of our salt
provisions had got spoiled, so that we were obliged to be extremely
economical in the expenditure of what remained, as we knew not to what
straits we might be driven. It will naturally be asked why we did not
procure fish? The answer is easy. The men had caught many in the
Morumbidgee, and on our first navigation of the Murray, but whether it was
that they had disagreed with them, or that their appetites were palled, or
that they were too fatigued after the labour of the day to set the lines,
they did not appear to care about them. The only fish we could take was
the common cod or perch; and, without sauce or butter, it is insipid
enough. We occasionally exchanged pieces of iron-hoop for two other kinds
of fish, the one a bream, the other a barbel, with the natives, and the
eagerness with which they met our advances to barter, is a strong proof of
their natural disposition towards this first step in civilization.