In passing some dead trees upon the right bank, I stopped to ascend one, that, from an elevation, I might survey the marsh, but I found it impossible to trace the river through it.
The country to the westward was covered with reeds, apparently to the distance of seven miles; to the N.W.to a still greater distance; and to the north they bounded the horizon.
The whole expanse was level and unbroken, but here and there the reeds were higher and darker than at other places, as if they grew near constant moisture; but I could see no appearance of water in any body, or of high lands beyond the distant forest.
As soon as we arrived at the end of the main channel, we again got out of the boat, and in pushing up the smaller one, soon found ourselves under a dark arch of reeds.

It did not, however, continue more than twenty yards when it ceased, and I walked round the head of it as I had done round that of the other.

We then examined the space between the creeks, where the bank receives the force of the current, which I did not doubt had formed them by the separation of its eddies.

Observing water among the reeds, I pushed through them with infinite labour to a considerable distance.

The soil proved to be a stiff clay; the reeds were closely embodied, and from ten to twelve feet high; the waters were in some places ankle deep, and in others scarcely covered the surface.