Following the latter, being the largest, we found that it soon curved round, taking a southerly direction.

A bank free from mangroves occurring in this bend, we availed ourselves of it, as the day was closing in, to secure some early stars for latitude and longitude.

The intense pleasure afforded by traversing water that had never before been divided by any keel, in some measure compensated us for the annoyance from the mosquitoes and sandflies, that took the opportunity of assailing us while in the defenceless state of quiet necessary in making observations.

Pushing out into the middle of the stream, and each wielding a beater, our tiny enemies were soon shaken off, and borne back to the shore by a refreshing North-West breeze.
We found it necessary to keep a sharp lookout here for the alligators, as they swarmed in dangerous numbers.
The scarcity of fish, and the shallowness of the water did not hold out much hope that the arm we were tracing would prove of great extent; still many speculations were hazarded on the termination of it.

The temperature in the night was down to 78 degrees, and the dew sufficiently heavy to wet the boat's awning through.
CONTINUE EXPLORATION.
Anxious to know how far this piece of water was to carry us into the untrodden wilds of Australia, we moved off with the first streak of dawn.
Ten miles in a South by East direction brought us to where the width and depth was not sufficient to induce us to proceed further.