Part 11 (1/2)
Dreah my brain, and in ht, mostly connected with the enterprise upon which I had e through, tracts of fabulously lovely glades, with groves and grottos green, watered by never-failing streanificent palroves, of the fairest of pines, of groves ”whose rich trees wept odorous guned the sense Of waking dreahts o'erladen; Of joy too conscious ed-for aidenn”
On awaking, however, I was forced to reflect, how ”mysterious are these laws! The vision's finer than the view: her landscape Nature never draws so fair as fancy drew” The rees, and now--
”The ain, the dewy hing the clouds aith playful scorn, And s into day”
With this char extract froup the whole party as soon as possible
(ILlustRATION: TIETKEN'S BIRTHDAY CREEK AND MOUNT CARNARVON)
(ILlustRATION: ON BIRTHDAY CREEK)
I noever, returned by a more southerly route, and found the scrubs less thick, and ca travelled east, I now turned on the bearing for the tea-tree creek, where the party ought now to be At six round, and saw several emus This induced me to look around for water, and I found soh water to last a week I was very well pleased, as this would save ti at the tea-tree The water here was certainly rather thick, and scarcely fit for huht suit black ones well enough, and it was good enough for our horses, which was the greatest consideration I rested my horse here for an hour, and then rode to the tea-tree The party, however, were not there, and I waited in expectation of their arrival In about an hour Mr Tietkens came and informed me that on his return to the camp the other day he had found a nice little water, six miles froether At this agreeable little spot were the three essentials for an explorer's carass From there ent to my clay pans, and the next day to ust, was an auspicious day in our travels, it being no less than Mr Tietkens's nine-and-twentieth birthday We celebrated it hat honours the expedition stores would afford, obtaining a flat bottle of spirits from the medical department, hich we drank to his health and many happier returns of the day In honour of the occasion I called this Tietkens's Birthday Creek, and hereby proclaim it unto the nations that such should be its name for ever The cahwith us all the apparatus necessary for so great an ascent--that is to say, therlasses, quart pot, waterbag, and matches In about four miles we reached its foot, and found its sides so bare and steep that I took off my boots for the ascent It was forlons of water, or any places that would retain it for aits summit, the vieas h the horizon was bounded in all directions by ranges, yet scrubs filled the entire spaces between
To the north lay a long and very distant range, which I thought h it would certainly be a stretch either of ie was nearly 140 miles away
To the north-as a flat-topped hill, rising like a table froher than such hills usually are This was Mount Conner To the south, and at a considerable distance away, lay another range of soth, apparently also of considerable altitude I called this the Everard Range The horizon as bounded by a continuous mass of hills or mountains, from the centre of which Birthday Creek seemed to issue Many of the mounts ard appeared of considerable elevation The natives were burning the scrubs west and north-west On the bare rocks of this mountainseveral white, bleached snail-shells I was grieved to find that my barometer hadthe boiling point of water I obtained the altitude
Water boiled at 206 degrees, giving an elevation of 3085 feet above the level of the sea, it being about 1200 feet above the surrounding country The view of Birthday Creek winding along in little bends through the scrubs fro Down beloere some very pretty little scenes One was a sh furroith a few eucalyptus trees upon it, running from a ravine near the foot of this h two red h apart to ad close to the little gorge On any other part of the earth's surface, if, indeed, such another place could be found, water must certainly exist also, but here there was none We had a perfect bird's-eye view of the spot We could only hope, for beauty and natural harmony's sake, that watercompleted our survey, we descended barefooted as before
On reaching the camp, Gibson and Jimmy had shot some parrots and other birds, which uns, otherwise they never could have hit them, and we had an excellent supper of parrot soup Just here we have only seen parrots, aroo, wallaby, and ealy shy and difficult to approach, fro so continually hunted by the natives I naular feature Mount Carnarvon, or The Sentinel, as soon I found
”The mountain there did stand T sentinel enchanted land”
The night was cold; rees What little dew fell became frosted; there was not sufficient to call it frozen I found itude 132 degrees 29'
In the night of the 1st Septe fastly over us, and a few drops of rain fell at intervals About ten o'clock pm I observed a lunar rainbow in the northern horizon; its diarees There were no prismatic colours visible about it To-day was clear, fine, but rather windy We travelled up the creek, skirting its banks, but cutting off the bends
We had low ridges on our right The creek came for some distance from the south-west, then more southerly, then at ten miles,its banks was excellent, and the sceneryscattered about in various directions, while further to the west and south-west the high, bold, and very rugged chain rose into peaks and points We only travelled sixteen miles, and encamped close to a pretty little pine-clad hill, on the north bank of the creek, where soood supply of water The grass and herbage being nificent, the horses were in a fine way to enjoy the that even ih and pointed peaks of the reen valley; through this the creekround the foot of little pine-clad hills of unvarying red colour, whilst the earth fro was covered with a carpet of verdure and vegetation of alinable hue It was happiness to lie at ease upon such a carpet and gaze upon such a scene, and it was happiness the more ecstatic to know that I was the first of a civilised race of ht really seemed to be prophetic The trend of the creek, and the valley dohich it carees south of west We soon found it beca hills At ten miles from camp we found a pool of water in the bed In about a couple of miles farther, to my surprise I found we had reached its head and its source, which was the drainage of a big hill There was no e Soround
The valley now changed into a char amphitheatre We had thus traced our Birthday Creek, to its own birthplace It has a short course, but a
As there appeared to be no water in the amphitheatre, we returned to the pool we had seen in the creek Several sh pretty little valleys joined our creek to-day We were now near soher cones of the main chain, and could see that they were all entirely tirew upon their sides The spot ere now encamped upon was another scene of exquisite sylvan beauty We had now been a month in the field, as to-ratulate myself upon the result of ht was cold and windy, dense nimbus clouds hovered just above the mountain peaks, and threatened a heavy downpour of rain, but the driving gale scattered theions of space, and after sunrise we had a perfectly clear sky I intended this h what seemed now, as it had always seeh the chain Going north round a pointed hill, ere soon in the trend of the pass; in fivewesterly into another, or else into a large eucalyptus flat or swamp, which had no apparent outlet This heavy ti still further, I soon discovered that ere upon the reedy banks of a fast flowing strea idly and unheeded on, were now for the first tihted eyes of their discoverer
Here I had found a spot where Nature truly had
”Shed o'er the scene her purest of crystal, her brightest of green”
This was really a delightful discovery Everything was of the best kind here--tis, over thousands of htful and fanciful region than this, and one indeed where a white ht were of a verity realised
Geographically speaking, we had suddenly coe water course Its trend here was nearly south, and I found it now ran through a long glen in that direction
We saw several fine pools and ponds, where the reeds opened in the channel, and we flushed up and shot several lots of ducks This creek and glen I have named respectively the Ferdinand and Glen Ferdinand, after the Christian naainst them in this book denote contributors to the fund raised by Baron Mueller for this expedition--EG) The glen extended nearly five miles, and where it ended, the water ceased to show upon the surface At the end of the glen we enca ave me more pleasure than this, for I trust it will be believed that:--
”The proud desire of sowing broad the gerh of careless sons of earth; Though riht that cheers me onward is, I have not lived in vain”