- At nine, again set forward on our return up the river, and it
was near four o'clock before we arrived at a convenient halting-place on
its banks, the river presented a most singular phenomenon to our
astonished view.
That river which yesterday was so shallow that it could
be walked across, and whose stream was scarcely perceptible, was now
rolling along its agitated and muddy waters nearly on a level with the
banks: whence this sudden rise, we could not divine, any more than we
could account for the non-appearance of a fresh twenty miles lower down;
unless the marshes which we have traced for the two last days, at a
distance from the river, should have absorbed the waters in passing, or
unless the extremely winding course should so protract and retard the
current of them as to cause a considerable time to elapse before a flood
in the upper parts could reach the lower. We considered ourselves as
extremely fortunate in having quitted our station of the 8th a day or
two before it was originally intended, as we should otherwise have been
in considerable danger.
The present height of the bank above the level of the stream is four
feet nine inches.
A singular instance of affection in one of the brute creation was this
day witnessed. About a week ago we killed a native dog, and threw his
body on a small bush: in returning past the same spot to-day, we found
the body removed three or four yards from the bush, and the female in a
dying state lying close beside it; she had apparently been there from
the day the dog was killed, being so weakened and emaciated as to be
unable to move on our approach.
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