y opened to two, three, and four miles of
breadth, while the width of the river increased to the third of a mile,
the expectations of the men toiling at the oar became proportionably
excited. The cliffs ceased, and gave place to undulating hills; no
pleasure-ground could have been more tastefully laid out than the
country to the right, and the various groups of trees, disposed upon the
sides of the elevations that bounded the western side of the valley,
were most ornamental. On the opposite side, the country was less
inviting, and the hills were bleak and bare. At length a clear horizon
appeared to the south, the direction in which the river was flowing;
Captain Sturt landed to survey the country, and beneath him was the
great object of his search, the termination of one of Australia's
longest and largest streams. Immediately below him was a beautiful lake,
of very large extent, and greatly agitated by the wind. Ranges of hills
were observed to the westward, stretching from north to south, and
distant forty miles. Between these hills and the place where the
traveller stood, the western bank of the Murray was continued in the
form of a beautiful promontory projecting into the lake, and between
this point and the base of the ranges the vast sheet of water before him
extended in the shape of a bay. The scene was altogether a very fine
one; but disappointment was a prevailing feeling in the mind of the
explorer, for it was most likely that there would be no practicable
communication for large ships between the lake and the ocean, and thus a
check was put upon the hopes that had been entertained of having at
length discovered a large and navigable river leading into the interior
of New Holland. The lake, called Lake Alexandrina, which was fifty
miles long and forty broad,[26] was crossed with the assistance of a
favourable wind; its waters were found to be generally very shallow, and
the long, narrow, and winding channel by which it communicates with the
ocean was found, as it had been feared, almost impracticable even for
the smallest vessels. This channel unites itself with the sea on the
south-western coast of New Holland, at the bottom of a bay named
Encounter Bay, one boundary of which is Cape Jervis, by which it is
separated from St. Vincent's Gulph,--the very part of the coast where a
ship was to be despatched by the Governor of New South Wales to afford
the party assistance, in case of their being successful in penetra