as a very serious
affair, it afterwards proved a great source of mirth. No one could recall
to mind, without laughing, the ludicrous figure necessarily cut by our
shipmates, when to amuse the natives, they figured on the light fantastic
toe; and the readers, who look at the plate representing this really
serious affair,* will behold two men literally dancing for their lives.

(*Footnote. See above.)

RETURN OF THE BOATS.

August 2.

This morning the boats returned; they had gone up the Adelaide in a
general southerly direction, nearly 80 miles: the windings of the river,
which were very great in some places, forming the shape of the letter S.
It became at this distance very narrow, and was divided into two
branches, one taking a southerly direction, the other an easterly; the
latter was too narrow for the boat's oars, while the former was blocked
up by fallen trees lying across it. As in addition to the difficulties
just mentioned, only one day's provision remained in the boats, the
further exploration of the Adelaide was necessarily, though reluctantly,
abandoned.

BANKS OF THE ADELAIDE.

For thirty miles of the upper part of the river the water was fresh;
while the banks, excepting near the point of separation, were low, being
not more than five feet above the present level of the river, a
circumstance very favourable for irrigation, and the cultivation of rice.
Fifteen miles from the mouth they were fringed by the growth of
mangroves; and higher up many of the points were thickly wooded, while on
either side stretched a vast extent of prairie country, dotted here and
there with islands of timber, which served to break the native monotony
of the scene. Somewhat less than halfway up, rose on both banks a thick
jungle of bamboo, which, in places where the water was always fresh,
attained the gigantic height of from 60 to 80 feet. Between 20 and 70
miles from the mouth the soil is a good light-coloured mould; above this,
commencing where the bank of the river is marked by a coarse red gritty
sandstone projection, the aspect of the country changes from that of low
plains to a slightly wooded and gently undulating surface, in some places
stony. This character continued to the furthest point reached in the
boats, in latitude 12 degrees 57 minutes South, and longitude 131 degrees
19 minutes East.

When they had penetrated thus far into the new lands of Australia, the
explorers returned, having experienced those sen