not till he had discovered brine
springs in the bed of the river, which accounted for its saltness.
Sturt had found no inland sea, but in the Darling he had discovered
a main channel of the western watershed.

He now proposed to follow the line of the Murrumbidgee, "a river of
considerable size and impetuous current," and to trace it if possible
into the interior. Several of his old party again joined him, and once
more he rode out of Sydney on this new quest.

The journey to the banks of the Murrumbidgee lay through wild and
romantic country, but as they journeyed farther, broad reed belts
appeared by the river, which was soon lost in a vast expanse of reeds.
For a moment or two Sturt was as one stunned; he could neither sleep
nor rest till he had regained the river again. When at last he did
so he found the water was deep, the current rapid, and the banks high.
But he turned on all hands to build the whale-boat which he had designed
at Sydney for the purpose. Early in January he writes home: "I was
checked in my advance by high reeds spreading as far as the eye can
reach. The Murrumbidgee is a magnificent stream. I do not yet know
its fate, but I have taken to the boats. Where I shall wander to God
only knows. I have little doubt, however, that I shall ultimately make
the coast."

By 6th January the boat was ready and Sturt started on his memorable
voyage. After passing the junction of the Lachlan, the channel
gradually narrowed; great trees had been swept down by the floods and
navigation rendered very dangerous. Still narrower grew the stream,
stronger the current. "On a sudden, the river took a general southern
direction. We were carried at a fearful rate down its gloomy banks,
and at such a moment of excitement had little time to pay attention
to the country through which we were passing. At last we found we were
approaching a junction, and within less than a minute we were hurried
into a broad and noble river. It is impossible to describe the effect
upon us of so instantaneous a change. We gazed in silent wonder on
the large channel we had entered."

The Murrumbidgee had joined the great Murray River as Sturt now called
it, after Sir George Murray of the Colonial Department.

To add to the unknown dangers of the way, numbers of natives now
appeared in force on the banks of the river, threatening the white
men with "dreadful yells and with the beating of spears and shields."

Firearms alone saved the littl