River Systems of North America—Rivers of Central America—Rivers of South
America and of Australia.
NORTH America is divided into four distinct water systems by the Rocky
Mountains, the Alleghanies, and a table-land which contains the great
lakes, and separates the rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean from
those which go to the Gulf of Mexico. This table-land, which is a level,
nowhere more than 1200 or 1500 feet above the surface of the sea, is the
watershed of the Mackenzie, the Mississippi, the St. Lawrence, and of
the rivers that flow into Hudson’s Bay. The St. Lawrence rises under the
name of the St. Louis in 47° 43ʹ N. lat. and 93° W. long.; after joining
the Lakes Superior, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, it issues from the last by
the name of the Iroquois, and, expanding in its north-easterly course
into Lakes St. Francis, St. Louis, and St. Peter, it is first known as
the St. Lawrence at Montreal, from whence it runs north-east into the
Atlantic, and ends in an estuary 100 miles wide. It has a basin of
297,600 square miles, of which 94,000 are covered with water, exclusive
of the many lesser lakes with which it is in communication.
North of the watershed there is an endless and intricate labyrinth of
lakes and rivers, almost all connected with one another. But the
principal streams of these Arctic lands are—the Great Fish River, which
flows north-east in a continued series of dangerous and all but
impassable rapids to the Arctic Ocean at Melville Strait; the
Copper-mine River, of much the same character, which, after traversing
many lakes, enters the Icy Sea at George the Fourth’s Gulf; and the
Mackenzie River, a stream of greater magnitude, formed by the confluence
of the Peace River and the Athabasca from the Rocky Mountains, which,
after flowing north over 16 degrees of latitude, enters the Frozen Ocean
in the Esquimaux country beyond the Arctic Circle. All these rivers are
frozen more than half the year, and the Mackenzie, in consequence of its
length and direction from south to north, is subject to floods like the
Siberian rivers, because its lower course remains frozen for several
hundred miles long after the upper part is thawed, and the water,
finding no outlet, flows over the ice and inundates the plains.
South of the table-land the valley of the Mississippi extends for 1000
miles, and this greatest of North American rivers has its origin in the
junction of streams from the small lakes Itaska and Ussawa, on the
table-land at no greater height than 1500 feet above the sea. Before
their junction these streams frequently spread out into sheets of water,
and the Mississippi does the same in the upper part of its course. This
river flows from north to south through more degrees of latitude than
any other, and receives so many tributaries of the higher orders that it
would be difficult even to name them. Among those that swell its volume
from the Rocky Mountains, the Missouri, the Arkansas, and the Red River
are the largest, each being in itself a mighty stream, receiving
tributaries without number. Before their junction the Missouri is a
stream much superior to the Mississippi both in length and volume, and
has many affluents larger than the Rhine. It rises in about 44° N. lat.,
and runs partly in a longitudinal valley of the Rocky Mountains, and
partly at their foot, and drains the whole of the country on the right
bank of the Mississippi between the 49th and 40th parallels of north
latitude. It descends in cataracts through the mountain regions, and in
the plains it sometimes passes through large prairies and sometimes
through dense forests, in all accomplishing 3000 miles in a very
tortuous and generally south-eastern direction till it joins the
Mississippi near the town of St. Louis. Lower down, the Mississippi is
joined by the Arkansas, 2000 miles long, with many tributaries, and then
by the Red River, the former from the Rocky Mountains; the latter, which
rises in the table-land of New Mexico, is fed by rivers from the Sierra
del Sacramento, and enters the main stream not from the beginning of the
delta, at the head of which the Mississippi sends off a large branch
called the Atchafalaya to the south, and then turning to the east it
discharges itself by five mouths at the extremity of a long tongue of
land which stretches 50 miles into the Gulf of Mexico, having formed a
delta considerably larger than that of the Nile. The shore is lined with
shallow salt lagoons; the greater part of the delta is covered with
water and unhealthy marshes, the abode of the alligator, and during the
floods it is a muddy sea. This river is navigable for 2240 miles. Its
valley is of variable width, but at its greatest width, at the junction
of the White River, it is 80 miles.
The tributaries from the Rocky Mountains, though much longer, run
through countries of less promise than those which are traversed by the
Ohio and the other rivers that flow into the Mississippi on the east,
which offer advantages unrivalled even in this wonderful country, only
beginning to be developed.
The Ohio is formed by the union of the rivers Alleghany and Monongahela,
the latter from the Laurel ridge of the Alleghany chain in Virginia; the
former comes from sources near Lake Erie, and the two unite at
Pittsburg, from whence the river winds 948 miles through some of the
finest states of the Union, till its junction with the Mississippi,
having received many accessories, six of which are navigable streams.
There are some obstacles to navigation in the Ohio, but they have been
avoided by canals. Other canals join both the Mississippi and its
branches with Lake Erie, so that there is an internal water
communication between the St. Lawrence and the Gulf of Mexico. The whole
length of the Mississippi is 3160 miles, but, if the Missouri be
considered the main stem, it is 4265, and the joint stream drains an
area of about a million and a quarter of square miles. The breadth of
the river nowhere corresponds with its length. At the confluence of the
Missouri each river is half a mile wide, and after the junction of the
Ohio it is not more. A steamer may ascend the Mississippi for 2000 miles
from Balize without any perceptible difference in its breadth. The depth
is 168 feet where it enters the Gulf of Mexico at New Orleans: the fall
of the river at Cape Girardeau is four inches in a mile. This river is a
rapid desolating torrent loaded with mud; its violent floods, from the
melting of the snow in the high latitudes, sweep away whole forests, by
which the navigation is rendered very dangerous, and the trees, being
matted together in masses many yards thick, are carried down by the
spring floods, and deposited over the delta and Gulf of Mexico for
hundreds of square miles.
North America can boast of two other great water systems, one from the
eastern versant of the Alleghanies, which flows into the Atlantic, and
another from the western versant of the Rocky Mountains, which runs into
the Pacific.
All the streams that flow eastward through the United States to the
Atlantic are short, and comparatively small, but of the highest utility,
because many of them, especially those to the north, end in gulfs of
vast magnitude, and the whole are so united by canals that few places
are not accessible by water—one of the greatest advantages a country can
possess. There are at least 24 canals in the United States, the
[aggregate] length of which is 3101 miles.
Many of the streams which ultimately come to the Atlantic rise in the
western ridges of the Alleghany chain, and traverse its longitudinal
valleys before leaving the mountains to cross the Atlantic slope, which
terminates in a precipitous ledge for 300 miles parallel to the range.
By falling over this rocky barrier in long rapids and picturesque
cascades they afford an enormous and extensive water-power; and as the
rivers are navigable from the Atlantic quite across the maritime plains,
these two circumstances have determined the location of most of the
principal cities of the United States at the foot of this rocky ledge,
which, though not more than 300 feet high, has had a greater influence
on the political and commercial interests of the Union than the highest
chains of mountains have had in other countries. The Hudson in the north
is navigable to Albany; the Delaware and Susquehanna, ending in bays,
are important rivers; and the Potomac, which falls into Chesapeake Bay,
passes Washington, the capital of the United States, to which the
largest ships can ascend.
The watershed of the Rocky Mountains lies at a greater distance from the
Pacific than that of the Alleghanies from the Atlantic; consequently the
rivers are longer, but they are few, and little known; the largest are,
the Oregon or Colombia, and the Rio Colorado. The former has its sources
not far from those of the Missouri and of the Rio del Norte; and after
an exceedingly tortuous source, in which it receives many tributaries,
it falls into the Pacific at Astoria. The Colorado is a Mexican stream,
which comes from the Sierra Verde and falls into the Gulf of California.
The Sacramento with its tributaries, a Californian stream, lying between
the two, and much inferior to either, has been brought into notice of
late from the extensive and rich auriferous country through which it
flows in its course to the Bay of San Francisco on the Pacific.
On the table-land of Mexico there is a basin of continental streams,
which, rising from springs on the eastern side of the Sierra Madre, and
fed by the periodical rains, flow northward and terminate in lakes,
which part with their superfluous water by evaporation. Of these, the
Rio Grande, which, after a course of 300 miles, falls into the Parras,
is the greatest.
The largest river in the isthmus of Mexico is the Rio de Lerma or Rio
Grande Santiago, which rises on the table-land of Toluca, passes through
Lake Chapala, forms numerous cascades, and falls into the Pacific after
a course of 400 miles. There are many streams in Central America, and
above 10 rivers that are navigable for some miles; six of these fall
into the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea, and four into the Pacific. Of
these, the Guasacualco, which traverses the Isthmus nearly from sea to
sea, and which has by some been considered as the best point for a sea
canal between the two oceans, and the Montagua, which rises in the
mountains near Guatemala: the first empties itself into the Gulf of
Mexico, whilst the second flows into the Gulf of Honduras, and has a
long line of navigation.
In the southern part of the State of Guatemala is situated the River of
San Juan, which drains the Lakes of Nicaragua and Leon, and by which it
is supposed a water communication could be easily effected between the
Atlantic and the Pacific.
The Andes, the extensive watershed of South America, are so close to the
sea, that there are no rivers of considerable size which empty
themselves into the Pacific; even some of the streams that rise in the
western Cordilleras find their way to the eastern plains.
The Magdalena, at the northern end of the Andes, though a secondary
river in America, is 620 miles long. It rises in the central chain, at
the divergence of the Cordilleras of Suma Paz and Quindiu, and enters
the Caribbean Sea by various channels; it is navigable as far as Honda.
The Cauca, its only feeder on the left, comes from Popayan, and is
nearly as large as its primary, to which it runs parallel the greater
part of its course. Many streams join the Magdalena on the right, as the
stream which waters the elevated plain of Bogota, and forms the cataract
of Tequendama, one of the most beautiful and wildest scenes in the
Andes. The river rushes through a chasm 30 feet wide, which appears to
have been formed by an earthquake, and at a double bound descends 530
feet into a dark gloomy pool, illuminated only at noon by a few feeble
rays. A dense cloud of vapour rising from it is visible at the distance
of 15 miles. At the top the vegetation is that of a temperate climate,
while palms grow at the bottom.
The river Atrato, parallel to the Cauca and Magdalena, but less
considerable, empties itself into the Gulf of Darien. The rivers of
Patia, of San Juan, of Las Esmeraldas, and of Guyaquil, all rise on the
western declivity of the Andes to flow into the Pacific. With these
exceptions, all the water from the inexhaustible sources of the Andes
north of Chile is poured into the Orinoco, the River of the Amazons, and
the Rio de la Plata, which convey it eastward across the continent to
the Atlantic. In the far south, indeed, there are the Colorado and Rio
Negro, but they are insignificant when compared with these giant floods.
The basins of these three rivers are separated in their lower parts by
the mountains and high lands of the Parima and Brazil; but the central
parts of the basins of all three, toward the foot of the Andes, form an
extensive level, and are only divided from one another by imperceptible
elevations in the plains, barely sufficient to form the watersheds
between the tributaries of these majestic rivers. This peculiar
structure is the cause of the natural canal of the Cassiquiare, which
joins the Upper Orinoco with the Rio Negro, a principal affluent of the
Amazons. Ages hence, when the wilds are inhabited by civilized man, the
tributaries of these three great rivers, many of which are navigable to
the foot of the Andes, will, by means of canals, form a water system
infinitely superior to any that now exists.
The Orinoco, altogether a Colombian river, rises in the Sierra del
Parima, 200 miles east of the elevated Peak of Duida, and maintains a
westerly course to San Fernando de Atabapo, where it receives the
Atabapo, and Guaviare, which is larger than the Danube; here ends the
Upper Orinoco. The river then forces a passage through the Sierra del
Parima, and runs due north for three degrees of latitude, between banks
almost inaccessible; its bed is traversed by dykes, and filled with
boulders of granite and islands clothed with a variety of magnificent
palm-trees. Large portions of the river are here engulfed in crevices,
forming subterranean cascades; and in this part are the celebrated falls
of the Atures and Apures, 36 miles apart, which are heard at the
distance of many miles. At the end of this tumultuous part of its course
it is joined by the Meta, and farther north by the Apure, two very large
rivers, which drain the whole eastern side of the Andes in an extent of
10 degrees of latitude, and then runs eastward to its mouth, where it
forms an extensive delta and enters the Atlantic by many channels. As
the Upper Orinoco runs west, and the Lower Orinoco east, it makes a
complete circuit round the Parima mountains, so that its mouth is only
two degrees distant from the meridian of its sources.
The Cassiquiare leaves the Orinoco near the south base of the Peak of
Duida, and joins the Rio Negro, a chief tributary of the Amazons, at the
distance of 180 miles.
The Orinoco is navigable for 1000 miles at all seasons; a fleet might
ascend it from the Dragon’s Mouth to within 45 miles of Santa Fé de
Bogota. It receives many navigable rivers, of which the Guaviare, the
Atures, and the Meta are each larger than the Danube. The Meta may be
ascended to the foot of the Andes; its mean depth is 36 feet, and in
many places 80 or 90. It rises so high in the Andes that Baron Humboldt
says the vegetable productions at its source differ as much from those
at its confluence with the Orinoco, though in the same latitude, as the
vegetation of France does from that of Senegal. The larger feeders of
the Orinoco come from the Andes, though many descend to it from both
sides of the Parima, in consequence of its long circuit among these
mountains.
The basin of the Orinoco has an area of 300,000 square miles, of which
the upper part is impenetrable forest, the lower is Llanos.
The floods of the Orinoco, like those of all rivers entirely within the
torrid zone, are very regular, and attain their height nearly at the
same time with those of the Ganges, the Niger, and the Gambia. They
begin to swell about the 25th of March, and arrive at their full and
begin to decrease on the 25th of August. The inundations are very great,
owing to the quantity of rain that falls in the wooded regions, which
exceeds 100 inches in a year.
Below the confluence of the Apure the river is three miles and a quarter
broad, but during the floods it is three times as much. By the
confluence of four of its greatest tributaries at the point at which it
bends to the east, a low inland delta is formed, in consequence of which
3600 square miles of the plain are under water during the inundation.
The Orinoco in many places smells of musk, from the number of dead
crocodiles.
Upper Peru is the cradle of the Amazons, the greatest of rivers, which
drains the chain of the Andes from the equator to the 20th parallel of
southern latitude. Its highest branch, which bears the name of Marañon,
issues in two streams from the Lake of Lauricocha in the plain of
Bombon, at a great elevation in the Andes: it runs in a deep
longitudinal valley from south to north, till it bursts through the
eastern ridge at the Pongo de Manseriche, near the town of San Borja,
from whence it follows an uniform eastern course of nearly 4000 miles
including its windings, till it reaches the Atlantic. West of San Borja,
and on its southern bank, it receives the Huallaga and Yucayali, the
latter a river of great size which rises in the Andes of Vilcañota, S.
of Cusco, where its source was visited and its position determined by
Mr. Pentland. The Amazons is supposed to drain an area of two millions
and a half of square miles, which is ten times the size of France. In
some places it has a great depth; it is navigable 2200 miles from its
source, and is 96 miles wide at its mouth.
The name of the river is three times changed in its course: it is known
as the Marañon from its source to the confluence of the Yucayali; from
that point to its junction with the Rio Negro, it is called the
Solimoes; and from the Rio Negro till it enters the ocean it is the
River of the Amazons.
The number, length, and volume of its tributaries are in proportion to
its magnitude; even the affluents of its affluents are noble streams.
More than 20 superb rivers, navigable almost to their sources, pour
their waters into it, and streams of less importance are numberless. Two
of the largest are the Huallaga and the Yucayali: like their primary,
the former has its origin in the mining district of Pasco, and after a
long northern course between the Cordilleras it breaks through a gorge
similar to that of Manseriche and joins the Marañon in the plains; it is
almost a mile broad above its junction. The Spanish governor of Peru
sent Pedro de Orsoa down this river in the year 1560 to search for the
Lake of Parima and the city of El Dorado. The Yucayali, not inferior to
the Marañon itself, is believed by some eminent geographers to be the
true Marañon. In a course of 1080 miles it is fed by accessaries from a
wide extent of country, and at its junction with the main stream, near
the mission of San Joaquin de Omaguas, a line of 50 fathoms does not
reach the bottom, and in breadth it is more like a sea than a river. By
these streams there is access to Peru, and there is communication
between the Amazons and the most distant regions around by other
navigable feeders. Nothing is known of the rivers that empty themselves
into the Amazon on its southern bank, between the Yucayali and the
Madeira; the latter, which is its greatest affluent, comes near the
sources of the Paraguay, the principal accessary of the Rio de la Plata.
The River of the Amazons is not less extensively connected on the north.
The high lands of Colombia are accessible by the Putumayo, the Japura,
and other great navigable rivers; the Rio Negro, nearly nine miles
broad, a little way above its junction with the Amazons, unites it with
the Orinoco by the Cassiquiare; and lastly, the sources of the Rio
Branco come very near to those of the Essequibo, an independent river of
Demerara.
The main stream, from its mouth nearly throughout its length, is full of
river islands, and most of its tributaries have deltoid branches at
their junction with it. The annual floods of the Amazons are less
regular than those of the Orinoco, and, as the two rivers are in
different hemispheres, they occur at opposite seasons. The Amazons
begins to rise in December, is at its greatest height in March, and its
least in July and August. The quantity of rain that falls in the deep
forests traversed by this river is so great that, were it not for the
enormous evaporation, and the streams that carry it off, the country
would be flooded annually to the depth of eight feet. The Amazons is
divided into two branches at its mouth, of which one joins the Parà
south of the island of Das Joanes or Marajo, the other enters the ocean
to the north of it.
The water of some of the rivers in equatorial America is white; in
others it is of a deep coffee-colour, or dark green when seen in the
shade, but perfectly transparent, and, when ruffled by a breeze, of a
vivid green like some of the Swiss lakes. In Scotland, the brown waters
come from peat-mosses; but it is not so in America, since they occur as
often in forests as in savannahs. Sir Robert Schomburgk thinks they are
stained by the iron in the granite; however, the colouring matter has
not been chemically ascertained. The Orinoco and the Cassiquiare are
white; Rio Negro, as its name implies, is black, yet the water does not
stain the rocks, which are of a dazzling white. Black waters are
sometimes, though rarely, found on the table-lands of the Andes.
The Rio de la Plata forms the third great water system of South America.
The Rio Grande, its principal stream, rises in the mountains of Minas
Geraes, in Brazil, and runs 500 miles on the table-land from north to
south before it takes the name of Paranà. For more than 100 miles it is
a continued series of cataracts and rapids, the greatest of which, the
Salta Grande, is in about 24° 5ʹ lat. Above the fall the river is three
miles broad, when all at once it is confined in a rocky pass only 60
yards wide, through which it rushes over a ledge with thunderous noise,
heard at the distance of many miles. The Paranà receives three large
rivers on the right—the Paraguay, the Pilcomayo, and the Vermejo: all
generally tend to the south, and unite at different distances before
entering their primary at Corrientes. The Paraguay, 1200 miles long, is
the finest of these: in its upper part it is singularly picturesque,
adorned with palms and other tropical vegetation, and its channel
islands are covered with orange-groves. It springs from a chain of seven
lakes, on the southern slopes of the Campos Parecis, in Brazil, and may
be ascended by vessels of considerable burthen through nineteen degrees
of latitude. The Pilcomayo and Vermejo both come from Bolivia; the
former traverses the desert of the Gran Chaco, the latter the district
of Tarija. At Santa Fé the La Plata turns eastward, and before entering
the Atlantic is augmented by the Uruguay from the north, which takes its
name from the turbulence of its streams.
The Rio de la Plata is 2700 miles long, and for 200 miles from its
mouth, up to Buenos Ayres, it is never less than 170 miles broad. Were
it not for the freshness of its water it might be mistaken for the
ocean: it is, however, shallow, and loaded with mud, which stains the
Atlantic for 200 miles from its mouth.
The Paraguay is subject to dreadful floods. In 1812 the atmosphere was
poisoned by the putrid carcases of drowned animals. The ordinary annual
inundations of the Paranà, the principal or upper branch of the La
Plata, cover 36,000 square miles.
In consequence of the vast extent of the very level plains along the
base of the Andes, the basins of the three great rivers are apparently
united. So small are the elevations that determine their direction,
that, with the exception of a portage of three miles, a vessel might
sail from Buenos Ayres in 35° S. lat. to the mouth of the Orinoco in 9°
N. lat. by inland navigation.
The Colorado, which runs in a long shallow stream through the Pampas of
Buenos Ayres to the Atlantic, is formed of two principal branches, one
from the west, and the other from the north, which unite at a great
distance from the Atlantic, into which the river flows.
The Rio Negro or Cusu-debu rises at a great elevation, and separates the
Pampas from Patagonia. In its long course through arid deserts to the
Atlantic it does not receive a single adjunct, but it forms a
communication between that ocean and Chile, as it reaches a pass in the
Andes that is free from snow. There is some vegetation in its immediate
neighbourhood; it has a bar at its mouth, and is navigable only for four
miles above Carmen; it has floods twice in the year, one from the rains,
the other from the melting of the snow in the Andes.
Some other streams from the Chilian Andes run through, but do not
fertilize, the desolate plains of Patagonia.
There are various rivers in South America, unconnected with those
described, which in any other country would be esteemed of a high order.
Of many which descend from the mountains of Guiana, the Essequibo is the
largest; its general width is a mile and a quarter; its water, though
black, is transparent; and on its banks and those of all its adjuncts
the forest reigns in impenetrable thickness. It rises in the Sierra
Acaray, which separates its basin from that of the Amazons, and, after a
northerly course, falls into the Atlantic near 7° N. lat. by an outlet
14 miles broad, separated by three low islands into four branches. Sir
Robert Schomburgk, whose scientific journeys have made us acquainted
with a country of which so little was known, has shown that, by cutting
a canal three miles long between the Madeira and Guapore, an affluent of
the Mamore, an inland navigation might be opened from Demerara to Buenos
Ayres, over an extent of 42 degrees of latitude, with the exception of a
portage of only 800 yards in the rainy season between Lake Amucu and the
Quatata, a branch of the Rupununi, which flows into the Essequibo. But
that is not the only water communication between Guayana and remote
countries, great though the distance be, for the Napo, a tributary of
the Solimoes, offers communication with Quito, the Huallaga with Peru
and countries not far distant from the Pacific Ocean. By the Rio Negro,
the Orinoco, the Cassiquiare, and its tributary the Meta, there is
uninterrupted navigation to New Granada and to within eight miles of
Santa Fé de Bogota. “If,” says the distinguished traveller already
mentioned, “British Guayana did not possess the fertility which is such
a distinguishing feature, this water communication alone would render it
of vast importance; but, blessed as it is with abundant fruitfulness,
this extensive inland navigation heightens its value as a British
colony; and, if emigration sufficient to make its resources available
were properly directed thither, the port of Demerara would rival any in
the vast continent of South America.” It is certainly very remarkable
that the tide of emigration has never set towards a country of such
promise, abounding in valuable natural productions, and so much nearer
to Great Britain than her colonies in the Pacific.
The Parà and San Francisco are the chief Brazilian rivers: both rise on
the table-land; the former results from the union of the Tocantins and
Araguay; it descends from the high lands in rapids in its northerly
course, and, after running 1500 miles, joins the southern branch of the
Amazons before entering the Atlantic south of the island of Marajo. The
San Francisco is only 1275 miles long: it rises in the Sierra Canastra
in the province of Minas Geraes, and, after travelling northward between
mountain ranges parallel to the coast, it breaks through them and
reaches the ocean about the 11th degree of S. lat. As in the Appalachian
chain, so here, many rivers come down the edge of the table-land to the
level maritime plains of the Atlantic.
The historical renown and the high civilization of Asia and Europe,
their great wealth and population, may be attributed in a very great
degree to the facility of transport afforded by their admirable river
systems, and still more to the genius of the people who knew how to
avail themselves of them; the same may be said of the inhabitants of the
United States of America, while the Indians who have possessed these
countries for ages never took advantage of the noble streams with which
Providence had enriched and embellished them.
RIVERS OF NEW HOLLAND.
After America, the land of the river and the flood, New Holland appears
in more than its usual aridity. The absence of large rivers is one of
the greatest impediments to the improvement of this continent. What it
may possess in the interior is not known, but it is certain that no
large river discharges its water into the ocean, and most of the small
ones are absorbed before they reach it.
The streams from the mountains on the eastern side of the continent are
mere torrents, and would have short courses did they not run in
longitudinal valleys, as, for example, the Hawkesbury. The Murumbidgee,
the Lachlan, and the Macquarrie, formed by the accumulation of
mountain-torrents, are the largest.
The Murumbidgee rises in the ranges west of St. George’s Lake, and,
running south-west, meets the Lachlan, of unknown origin, coming from
the east. After their junction they run into the Murray, a much larger
stream, though only 350 feet broad, and not more than 20 feet deep:
before entering the ocean in Encounter Bay, it passes through the
Alexandrine Marsh: it is too shallow even for boats. The Darling is
supposed to be merely the upper part of the Murray, probably rising
towards the head of St. Vincent’s Gulf. The origin of the Macquarrie is
unknown: it is called the Fish River between Bathurst and Sydney; after
running 600 miles north-west it is lost in the marshes.
Swan River, on the western side of the continent, has much the same
character; and from that river to the Gulf of Carpentaria, along the
whole of the western and northern shores of the continent, there are
none. The want of water makes it hardly possible to explore the interior
of this continent. No country stands more in need of a complete system
of irrigation, which could easily be accomplished from the nature of the
rivers, which lie in deep channels, and might be converted into canals
by dams, from whence the water might be conveyed by channels over the
surrounding country, as in Lombardy.