Part 6 (1/2)
The tarn of Auber
Land in miniature
Journey south
Desert oaks
A better region
Kangaroos and eain
A creek channel
Water by scratching
Find ns
Farther south
Beautiful green
Abundance of water
Follow the channel
Laurie's Creek
Vale of Terassed plain
Native well
Dry rock holes
Natives' fires
New ranges
High mountain
Return to creek
And Glen Edith
Description of it
On starting from Mount Udor, on the 1st October, our road lay at first over rocks and stones, then for two or three h thick scrubs The country afterwards became a trifle less scrubby, and consisted of sandhills, timbered with casuarina, and covered, as usual, with triodia In ten miles we passed a low bluff hill, and camped near it, without any water On the roadseveral quandong trees, and got soht set in cool, if not cold Mr Carmichael went to the top of the low bluff, and infor the horizon in every direction except to the south-south-east, and that the intervening country appeared to be coa scrubs
In Baron von Mueller's extraordinary work on Select Extra-tropical Plants, with indications of their native countries, and some of their uses, these remarks occur:--”Acacia aneura, Ferd v Mueller Arid desert--interior of extra tropic Australia A tree never a' tree Mr S Dixon praises it particularly as valuable for fodder of pasture anie Mr W Johnson found in the foliage a considerable quantity of starch and gu it nutritious Cattle and sheep browse on the twigs of this, and sorass; and are ht
Droa as food Wood excessively hard, dark-brown; used, preferentially, by the natives for boos, sticks hich to lift edible roots, and shafts of phraged spear ends Mr JH
Maiden detere of mia bears a sa apple It somewhat resembles the taste of apples, and is sweet If crab apples, as is said, were the originals of all the present kinds, I ia by cultivation As this tree is necessarily so often mentioned in my travels, the remarks of so eminent a botanist upon it cannot be otherwise than welcome
In the direction of south-south-east Mr Carmichael said the country appeared most open A yelloer, of the immortelle species, which I picked at this little bluff, was an old Darling acquaintance; the vegetation, in
There was no water at this bluff, and the horses wandered all over the country during the night, in ot away For several hours we kept on south-south-east, over sandhills and through casuarina ti monotony At about five o'clock the little ave in, and would travel no farther We were obliged to leave her ast the sandhills
We continued until we had travelled forty ns of a creek or any place likely to produce or hold water had been found The only difference in the country was that it was now h the spinifex was as lively as ever
We passed several quandong trees in full fruit, of which we ate a great quantity; they were the most palatable, and sweetest I have ever eaten We also passed a few Currajong-trees (Brachychiton) At this point we turned nearly east It was, however, now past sundown, too dark to go on any farther, and we had again to enca so limited that we could have only a third of a pint each, and we could not eat anything in consequence The horses had to be very short-hobbled to prevent their straying, and we passed the night under the u-tree The unfortunate horses had now been two days and nights without water, and could not feed; being so short-hobbled, they were al From the top of a sandhill I saw that the eastern horizon was bounded by ties, and it was not very probable that the creek I was searching for could lie between us and them Indeed, I concluded that the creek had exhausted itself, not far from where we had left it The western horizon was now bounded by low ridges, continuous for many miles I decided to make for our last camp on the creek, distant some five-and-twenty , we cauht be the end of the exhausted creek channel, only the tirew proround between the passed by these trees, and indeed they looked rew separately They covered a space of about half a ht before me, at a short distance, but where our line of march would intersect them they seemed so scrubby and stony I wished to avoid theap The horses were now very troubleso very bad with thirst I turned on the bearing that would take me back to the old creek, which seeion where water could be found, and there we had to dig to get it At one place on the ridges before us appeared a few pine-trees (Callitris) which enliven any region they inhabit, and there is usually water in their neighbourhood The rocks froreere much broken; they were yet, however, five or six miles away We travelled directly towards the, I found the rocks upheaved in a ue I directed Carmichael and Robinson to avoid the stones as much as possible, while I rode over to see whether there was a creek or any other place where waterthe rocks at the foot of the ridge, I found several enores of sandstone, under which the natives had evidently been enca and frequently; and there was the channel of a small watercourse scarcelyledge and found it fore cave; upon the walls of this, the natives had painted strange devices of snakes, principally in white; the children had scratched ith of this cave had frequently been a large enca the place where these children of the wilderness obtained water, I espied about a hundred yards away, and on the opposite side of the little glen or valley, a very peculiar looking crevice between two huge blocks of sandstone, and apparently not reat delight found ashape, containing a most welcome and opportune supply of the fluid I was so anxious to discover Soreen slime rested on a portion of the surface, but the rest was all clear and pure water My horse ht have thought I had suddenly espied some basilisk, or cockatrice, orto dip his nose in the water he so greatly wanted, I turned hiallop off after his andaway from this liquid prize When I hailed, and overtook them, they could scarcely believe that our wants were to be so soon and so agreeably relieved There was abundance of water for all our requirements here, but the approach was so narrow that only two horses could drink at one ti so the fluid No one who has not experienced it, can i of such a treasure confers on the thirsty, hungry, and weary traveller; all his troubles for the time are at an end Thirst, that dire affliction that besets the wanderer in the Australian wilds, at last is quenched; his horses, unloaded, are allowed to roaraze and drink at will, free from the encumbrance of hobbles, and the traveller's other appetite of hunger is also at length appeased, for no matter what food one may carry, it is impossible to eat it without water This was truly a er had been satisfied I took a s, and found that we had dropped into a really very pretty little spot
Low sandstone hills, broken and split into e caves and caverns, that once no doubt had been some of the cavernous depths of the ocean, were to be seen in every direction; little runnels, with a few gum-trees upon them, constituted the creeks Callitris or cypress pines, ornaureen grass made up a really pretty picture, to the explorer at least This little spot is indeed an oasis I had clione in all directions to try and pick up the channel of a wretched dry creek, when all of a sudden I stumbled upon a perfect little paradise I found the die, nor is the quantity of water in it very great, but untouched and in its native state it is certainly a permanent water for its native owners