(Ebook) The Murray River by Kinloch, Arthur, active 19th century

(Ebook) The Murray River by Kinloch, Arthur, active 19th century

Lest this description of the River Murray should appear in some points to differ from the accounts of other travellers, it may be necessary to observe that the present little work is merely a Journal or daily record of what the writer observed during his voyage up the River, which was at the time considerably flooded, though it had not then attained its highest elevation, which occurs about December. The English reader may also bear in mind that rivers in England are not the scale whereby to estimate the streams of other portions of the globe, or even of Europe, and that some of the larger rivers of that Continent are in like manner subject to the vicissitudes of dry seasons and partial floods. This occurs particularly in Spain and in the South of France, as, for example, in the Rhone, which is materially influenced by the seasons in its volume of water. In more tropical climes the difference is still greater; thus, the rise of the Nile is sometimes not less than thirty-eight feet, that of the Euphrates twelve feet, that of the Tigris twenty feet; whilst in India the large rivers are also increased or diminished in a considerable degree during the dry and wet seasons. The English reader, therefore, the writer would again repeat, should not be surprised at hearing of the easy navigability of the greatest Australian river, or wonder that other works have stated the stream of the Murray as quite insignificant and ill adapted for steamers. The voyage of the Lady Augusta steamer has proved the fact of the navigation being open for at least six months during a very dry season, and no doubt can exist that in ordinary years the River Murray may be used by steamers for at least seven months. A system of embankments and occasional canals at a more distant day, when labour shall become abundant, will …