Volume Ii Part 11 (2/2)

August 18.

Shortly after starting this morning we crossed a creek, running south-west, with a few arborescent Callistemons growing out of the rocks here and there. The horse which Mr. Wall had been riding had grown so weak that it was unable to travel, even with nothing to carry but the saddle. As we were pa.s.sing along the side of a hill, he fell and rolled down into a gully. Being quite a young horse we thought he might regain strength, and did not like to kill him, so we left him and proceeded to find a good place for camping, which we did after travelling about four miles in the north-west direction, by the side of a fine river, with steep reedy banks, lined with large casuarinas and flooded-gum trees, and abundance of gra.s.s growing in the valley of the river. At this camp the feet of our horses were all carefully examined by Costigan, who was a blacksmith: it was also his duty to mark the number of each of our camps on some adjacent tree.

August 19.

Wall rode back to see if he could bring up the horse we had left behind, but on reaching the spot found him dead; one of our kangaroo-dogs had also stopped behind by the horse, being unable to follow us to the camp.

We had the good luck to succeed in catching several fish in the river, and, what was better, shot a fine wallaby, which saved us another sheep.

We had all along been particularly unfortunate in getting anything from the bush to add to our mess, not having been able either to shoot or catch anything for some time past except a few pigeons and two or three brown hawks.

The river by which we were camped was running west by south: below our camp it was not nearly so wide as at the spot where we came upon it.

Where it turned through the hills its banks were rocky and steep, and the bed narrow, but running rapidly. The hills here, as well as the valley of the river, were well covered with gra.s.s. The position of the camp was about 17 degrees 30 minutes south lat.i.tude, 145 degrees 12 minutes east longitude.

August 20, 21, and 22.

During the whole of these three days we travelled over undulating open land, wooded pretty thickly with stringy-bark, box, and apple-gum, interspersed with occasional sandy flats, producing a broad-leafed Melaleuca, and a pretty species of Grevillea, with pinnatifid, silvery leaves. Neither the Melaleuca nor the Grevillea grew more than twenty feet high. On the flats we found a great number of ant-hills, remarkable for their height and size; they were of various forms, but chiefly conical, some of them rose ten feet high. From the appearance of the ant-hills I should take the sub-soil to be of a reddish clay.

August 23.

We camped by the side of a creek running to the westward, with rather a broad bed, and steep banks of strong clay. There was no water in the creeks except in holes.

A tribe of natives, from eighteen to twenty in number, were seen coming down the creek, each carrying a large bundle of spears. Three of our party left the camp and went towards them, carrying in their hands green boughs, and making signs to the blacks to lay down their spears and come to us. After making signals to them for some minutes, three or four of them laid down their spears and approached us. I went back to the camp and fetched a few fish-hooks, and a tin plate marked with Mr. Kennedy's initials; having presented them with these they went away and appeared quite friendly. Shortly after we had camped, G.o.ddard and Jackey went out for the purpose of shooting wallabies; they parted company at the base of a hill, intending to go round and meet on the other side, but missing each other, Jackey returned to the camp without his companion. To our great alarm G.o.ddard did not return all night, although we kept up a good fire as a beacon to show him where we were camped, and fired a pistol every five minutes during the night.

August 24.

Three of our party, accompanied by Jackey, rode to the spot where the latter had left G.o.ddard on the previous day, intending, if possible, to track him, and succeeded in doing so for some distance to the eastward, but then coming to some stony ground, they lost the track.

They returned in about six hours, hoping to find him at the camp, but were disappointed. We now began to fear that our companion was lost, and poor Jackey displayed great uneasiness, fearing that he might be blamed for leaving him, and repeatedly saying that he did not wish G.o.ddard to leave the camp at all, and that he had waited for him some time on the opposite side of the hill, where they were to meet. Four fresh horses were saddled, and Jackey, with Mr. Kennedy, Wall, and Mitch.e.l.l, were just on the point of starting to renew the search, when to our great joy we observed him at a distance, approaching the camp. It would have been sadly discouraging to the whole party to have lost one of our companions in so wild and desolate a spot. We made but a short stage to-day in a northerly direction, and camped by the side of a creek running west by south, which, with the last two creeks we had pa.s.sed, we doubted not, from the appearance of the country, ran into the river we had crossed on the 20th instant. The country appeared to fall considerably to the westward. All the rivers and large creeks we had seen on this side the range (that crossed on the 10th instant) rose in or near the coast range, and appeared to run westerly across the peninsula into the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Although few of them appeared to be constantly running, yet there is an abundance of water to be found in holes and reaches of the rivers and creeks. Where there was any scrub by the side of the creeks, it was composed princ.i.p.ally of the climbing palm (Calamus), Glyceria, Kennedya, Mucuna, and a strong growing Ipomoea, with herbaceo-fibrous roots and palmate leaves; and in a few places bamboos were growing.

The trees were, Eugenias, Terminalias, Castanospermums, with two or three kinds of deciduous figs, bearing large bunches of yellowish fruit on the trunks. Although we frequently partook of these figs I found they did not agree with us; three or four of the party who frequently ate a great quant.i.ty, although advised not to do so, suffered severely from pain in the head and swelling of the eyes. The forest trees on the ironstone ridges were stringy-bark, and on the gra.s.sy hills box, Moreton Bay ash, and a tree belonging to the natural order Leguminosae, with axillary racemes of white apetalous flowers, long, broad, flat, many-seeded legumes, large, bipinnate leaves, leaflets oval, one inch long, and having dark fissured bark; on the flat stiff soil grew ironbark, apple-tree, and another species of Angophora, with long lanceolate leaves, seed vessels as large as the egg of a common fowl and a smooth yellow bark.

August 27.

This day being Sunday we had prayers at eleven o'clock. We saved the blood of the sheep we had killed for today's food, and having cut up the heart, liver, and kidneys, we mixed it all with a little flour and boiled it for breakfast. By this means we made some small saving, and it was a dish that we were very fond of. We saved all the wool that we could get from our sheep, for the purpose of stuffing our saddles, a process which was frequently required, owing to the poor condition of our horses.

August 28.

We started early this morning, but had not travelled far when one of our horses fell from weakness; we placed him on his legs four times during the day, but finding the poor animal could not walk, we shot him and took sufficient meat from him with us to last us two days. After making but a short stage, over ironstone ridges, covered with stringy-bark, and loamy flats, producing Melaleucas and Grevilleas, we camped beside a small creek, in the sandy bed of which there was no water, but from which we soon obtained some by digging a hole about two feet deep. We afterwards found there was plenty of water in the creek higher up to the eastward.

August 29.

We were obliged to leave another horse behind us this morning as he was quite unable to travel. We camped by the sandy bed of a very broad river, with water only in reaches and holes. There is, however, evidently a great deal of water running here occasionally, as the bed of the river was six or seven hundred yards wide, with two or three channels. The flood-marks on the trees were fifteen feet high; it has a north-easterly course; its bed was composed in places of large blocks of granite and trap-rock, which was very difficult to walk upon, being very slippery.

Fine melaleucas were growing on each side, which with their long pendulous shoots and narrow silvery leaves, afforded a fine shade from the heat of the sun. There was plenty both of gra.s.s and water for the horses, but most of them continued to grow weaker.

August 30 and 31.

The country was very mountainous and so full of deep gullies, that we were frequently obliged to follow the course of a rocky creek, the turnings of which were very intricate; to add to our difficulties, many of the hills were covered with scrub so thickly that it was with much difficulty that we could pursue our course through it. We had intended to have kept along the bank of the river, thinking it might lead us to Princess Charlotte's Bay, and although unable to do so, we did not as yet lose sight of the river altogether.

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