To return to the more immediate subject of the Murray navigation. The descent of this river was partially effected from the township of Albury, situated 400 miles south-west from Sydney, by Mr. Richard Gerstacker, in a gum-tree canoe, at a time when “the stream was lower than ever it had been since the white man approached its banks.” Mr. Gerstacker, whose progress was stopped by the sinking of his canoe on a “snag,” informs us that he left Albury, on the 5th May, 1851, in a gum-tree canoe, drawing about eleven inches water; and that throughout the distance he accomplished, there would have been water for three or four inches further draught. The river, however, being unusually low, the stream appeared filled with “snags,” or dead gum trees, some of which obstruct the navigation to such a degree that steam power would be necessary to dislodge them. Below the Murrumbidgee these impediments, the writer reports, for the most part ceased, and after the junction of the Darling scarcely one was to be seen; whilst the sharp bends, so embarrassing to steam navigation, were no longer met with—the river, though tortuous, offering wide sweeps which afford plenty of “sea room” in mid-channel, even for steamers of considerable size. Sandbanks, however, occasionally occurred up to the North-west Bend, but not in mid-channel. Mr. Gerstacker, whilst confessedly unacquainted with the resources of the Murray district, or the probable requirements of the settlers on its banks, is yet of opinion that the navigation of the river would be the means of drawing a largely increasing population to the Murray, not to say, the probable cause of augmenting in an incredible degree the zeal and efforts of the present inhabitants, no longer left in a state of isolation and comparative abandonment. Moreover, it may be added, the dray journeys for the transport of wool, produce, and supplies, being not only most tedious, but beset with difficulties, considerable returns for goods and passengers would be the certain result of a regular water communication.[5] Mr. Gerstacker, after referring to the energetic efforts which, in North America, have cleared almost impassable streams from the impediments of fallen timber, &c., concludes by saying, that except in an extraordinarily dry season, even the upper part of the Hume, or Upper Murray, as far as Albury, usually contains sufficient water, during eight months of the year, to float boats drawing four or five feet; but he leaves it to those acquainted with the resources of the country bordering these rivers to decide whether sufficient remuneration would be afforded to steamers thus accomplishing the navigation. The favourable statements of many settlers on the Murray might be added to the statements of Mr. Gerstacker, but the question has now received a more direct solution by the successful voyage of the _Lady Augusta_ steamer; before narrating which, some retrospective glance is perhaps requisite.