Part 10 (1/2)
From the 9th to the 22nd of October, I was occupied a good deal at the camp, having only one man and a native boy to attend to the tent, the horses and the sheep, so that I was in a great measure confined at home, occasionally only making short excursions to the town to superintend the preparation of a large supply of horse-shoes, or visiting the stations of some of the nearest country settlers. I had lately bought a kangaroo dog, from the captain of an American whaler, and in these rambles had frequent opportunities of trying my new purchase, both after emus and kangaroos, but he was quite useless for hunting either, and did little credit to the honesty of the person who sold him to me, and who had asked and received a high price, in consideration of the animal being, as he a.s.sured me, of a better description than ordinary. Of the natives of the district I saw nothing whatever; the death of young Hawson, and the subsequent scouring of the country by police, had driven them away from the occupied parts, and forced them to the fastnesses of the hills, or to the scrubs; I was, however, enabled by the kindness of Mr. Schurman, a German Missionary, stationed at Port Lincoln, to obtain a limited collection of words and phrases in the dialect of the district, and which I hoped might be of some use to me hereafter. Mr. Schurman has since published a copious vocabulary and grammar, of the language in use in this part of Australia.
On the 22nd, upon going into the settlement, I found the Government cutter WATERWITCH at anchor in the harbour, having Mr. Scott on board, and a most abundant supply of stores and provisions, liberally sent us by his Excellency the Governor, who had also most kindly placed the cutter at my disposal, to accompany and co-operate with me along the coast to the westward.
Mr. Scott had managed every thing confided to him most admirably; and I felt very greatly indebted to him for the ready and enterprising manner in which he had volunteered, to undertake a voyage from Port Lincoln to Adelaide in a small open boat, and the successful manner in which he had accomplished it. Among other commissions, I had requested him to bring me another man to accompany the expedition in the place of the one (R.
M'Robert) who had driven the dray to Port Lincoln, and with whom I was going to part; as also to bring for me a native, named Wylie, an aborigine, from King George's Sound, whom I had taken with me to Adelaide on my return in May last, but who had been too ill to accompany me at the time the expedition started; the latter he had not been able to accomplish, as the boy was in the country when he reached Adelaide, and there was not time to get him down before the WATERWITCH sailed. The man, however, he had procured, and I was glad to recognize in him an old servant, who had been with me in several of my former expeditions, and who was a most excellent carter and tent servant. His name was Thomas Costelow.
Having received large packets of papers and many letters, both from relations in England, and from many warm-hearted friends in Adelaide, I returned with Mr. Scott and Costelow to the tent, to make immediate preparations for our departure. The delay, occasioned by my having been obliged to send to Adelaide for our supplies, had so greatly protracted the period of my absence from the rest of my party, beyond what I had antic.i.p.ated, that I became most anxious to rejoin them: the summer weather too, was rapidly approaching, and I dreaded the task of forcing a way through the low level scrubby waste, around Streaky and Smoky Bays, under a tropical sun.
From the despatches received, I was glad to find that the Governor and the Colonists had approved of the step I had taken, in moving to the westward, which was gratifying and satisfactory, notwithstanding the disappointments I had experienced. In the course of the day, I sent in a dray to Port Lincoln, with our heavy baggage to put on board the cutter, with orders to Mr. Germain the master, to sail immediately for Streaky Bay, and lose no time in communicating with the party there. Before the cutter sailed, I purchased an excellent little boat to be sent with her for use in our coast or inland explorations, should it be found necessary.
October 23.--The blacksmith not having finished all the shoes, I was compelled to remain another day in camp; the man too, who had been left in charge of the sheep had lost them all; whilst the one, therefore, was finis.h.i.+ng his work and the other looking for his sheep, I employed myself in writing letters for Adelaide, and in arranging my business in Port Lincoln, etc.
October 24.--Having struck the tent, and loaded the dray, Mr. Scott and I rode into town to breakfast with Dr. Harvey, and take leave of our Port Lincoln friends. After transacting business matters, I settled with the man who was going to leave me, deducting the price of the sheep which by his carelessness he had lost, and which had not been recovered; I then paid Dr. Harvey for the hire of his boat, etc. and in arranging for it, he generously refused to receive more than 5 pounds as his boat had not been used in the return voyage from Adelaide. He also most kindly supplied us with some few small things, which we yet required, and was altogether most attentive and courteous.
Upon returning to our camp, I moved on the party, delighted once more with the prospect of being actively employed. Whilst I conducted the dray, I sent Mr. Scott round by Mr. Brown's station, to buy eleven more sheep in the place of those M'Robert had lost, and at night he rejoined us with them near Mr. White's station, about ten miles from Port Lincoln; it was late before the sheep came, and the yard to put them in was made, and as there were so few of them, they were a good deal alarmed and would not go into the yard, rus.h.i.+ng about violently, breaking away every time we drove them near it; at last we got ten safely housed, and were obliged to put up with the loss of the eleventh, the night being quite dark.
Mr. White and Mr. Poole visited us from their station, and I tried to purchase from the former a n.o.ble dog that he possessed, of the mastiff breed, but could not prevail upon him to part with it.
On the 25th I detained the party in camp, that I might get our sheep shorn, and send to Port Lincoln to inquire if there were any more letters for me by Dr. Harvey's little boat, which was expected to arrive to-day.
Mr. Scott, who rode into the settlement, returned in the afternoon.
October 26.--Sending the dray on under the guidance of the native boy, I rode with Mr. Scott up to Mr. White's station to wish him good bye, and to make another effort to secure an additional dog or two; finding that he would not sell the n.o.ble mastiff I so much wished to have, I bought from him two good kangaroo dogs, at rather a high price, with which I hastened on after the drays, and soon overtook them, but not before my new dogs had secured two fine kangaroos. For the first few miles we crossed a low flat country, which afterwards became undulating and covered with dwarf scrub, after this we pa.s.sed over barren ridges for about three miles, with quartz lying exposed on the surface and timbered by the b.a.s.t.a.r.d gum or forest casuarinae. We then descended to a level sandy region, clothed with small brush, and having very many salt lakes scattered over its surface; around the hollows in which these waters were collected, and occasionally around basins that were now dry, we found large trees of the gum, together with a few casuarinae. A very similar kind of low country appeared to extend far to the eastward and north-west.
Kangaroos were very numerous, especially near those hollows, that were surrounded by gum-trees, to which they retired for shelter during the heat of the day. We encamped at night in the midst of many of these salt lakes, without any water, but the gra.s.s was good. Our stage had been 25 miles upon a course of N. 25 degrees W. After watching the horses for a few hours, we tied them up for the night, not daring to trust them loose without water. A few natives had been seen during the day, but they ran away.
A singular feature attending the salt lakes, or the hollows where water had formerly lodged, was the existence of innumerable small stones, resembling biscuits or cakes in shape, perfectly circular and flat, but a little convexed in the upper surface, they were of various sizes, and appeared to consist of lime, being formed into their present shape by the action of water. Very similar ones have since been found in the volcanic region near Mount Gambier, on the southern coast of New Holland. From our present camp were seen before us to the north-west some low green looking ranges, lightly timbered, and promising a better country than we had hitherto met with.
October 27.--Having arrived at the hills, in about three miles, we found them abundantly gra.s.sed, but very rugged and rocky, of an oolitic limestone formation, with occasionally a light reddish soil covering the rock in the flats and valleys. Between these ranges and the sea, which was about a mile beyond them, were rather high sand hills, having a few stunted trees growing upon them, but otherwise dest.i.tute of vegetation.
No water could be found, nor were there any watercourses from the hills, where we examined them.
Keeping under the east side of the ranges for a few miles, we crossed the main ridge to the westward, and after a stage of about thirteen miles, halted under a high hill, which I named Mount Hope, in my former journey.
In a gorge of the range where the granite cropped out among the limestone, we found a spring of beautiful water, and encamped for the day. Mr. Scott and one of the native boys shot several pigeons, which came to the spring to drink in the evening in great numbers. In the meantime I had ascended the hill for a view, and to take angles. At a bearing of W. S. W. I set Point Drummond only a few miles distant from the camp, and between it and a bearing of S. W. was a considerable salt water lagoon on the eastern side of the sand hills of the coast; the surrounding country was low, level and scrubby. To the westward a great extent of dense scrub was visible, amid which were one or two elevations; and a salt lake, at a bearing of S. 60 degrees E. I made the lat.i.tude of this camp 34 degrees 7 minutes 16 seconds S. and the variation of the compa.s.s 4 degrees 10 minutes E.
October 28.--Travelling onwards for four miles, we pa.s.sed a fine spring, situated in a swamp to our left, and at two more we came to a sheet of water, named Lake Hamilton, [Note 15: After my friend George Hamilton, Esq.] a large and apparently deep lake, with but a few hundred yards of a steep high bank, intervening between it and the sea; the latter was rapidly encroaching upon this barrier, and would probably in the course of a few years more force a way through, and lay under water a considerable extent of low country in that vicinity. Around the margin of the lake was abundance of good gra.s.s, but the bank between it and the sea was high and very rocky.
After leaving the lake we entered upon a succession of low gra.s.sy hills but most dreadfully stony, and at night encamped upon a swamp, after a stage of about sixteen miles. Here we procured abundance of good water by digging through the limestone crust, near the surface. The country around was still of the same character as before, but amidst the never-ceasing strata of limestone which everywhere protruded, were innumerable large wombat holes--yet strange to say not one of these was tenanted. The whole fraternity of these animals appeared to have been cut off altogether in some unaccountable manner, or to have migrated simultaneously to some other part. No emus or kangaroos were to be seen anywhere, and the whole region around wore a singularly wild and deserted aspect.
October 29.--Our route was again over low stony hills, but with rather better valleys between them; this kind of country appeared to extend from five to twelve miles inland from the coast, and then commenced the low level waste of barren scrubby land, which we so constantly saw to the eastward of us.
I had intended to make a short stage to-day to a spring, situated in the midst of a swamp, in lat.i.tude 33 degrees 46 minutes 35 seconds S., but having kept rather too far away from the coast, I missed it, and had to push on for twenty-three miles to a rich and very pretty valley, under a gra.s.sy range, lightly wooded with casuarinae. The soil was somewhat sandy, but clothed with vegetation; in holes in the rocks we procured abundance of water from a little valley near our camp, and in a swamp about a mile and a half north-east was a spring. Our stage was a long one, and the day being excessively hot, our horses, sheep, and dogs were nearly all knocked up. Of the latter two were unfortunately missing when we arrived at our halting ground; one came up afterwards, but the other could nowhere be found, though both had been seen not two miles away. The missing dog [Note 16 at end of para.], was the best of the two which I had purchased of Mr. White, and I felt sorry for a loss which it would be impossible for me to replace. Many native fires were seen to-day, and especially in the direction of a high bare-looking detached range to the north-east, named by me from its shape, Mount Wedge; none of these people were, however, seen, but a fire still burning was found where we encamped for the night.
[Note 16: Upon returning to Adelaide in 1841, I learnt that the dog had gone back all the way to Mr. White's station, and as Mr. White wished to keep the animal, he returned the money he had received at his sale.]
On the 30th we remained stationary to rest the horses, and to try and recover the lost dog, but after a long and fruitless search, we were obliged to give up the attempt.
On the 31st, after crossing a ridge under which we were encamped, we pa.s.sed through a very pretty gra.s.sy and park-like country, and what was very unusual, not stony on the surface. There were in places a great many wombat holes, but these were now all occupied by their tenants, and the whole aspect of the country was more encouraging and cheerful; the extent of good country was, however, very limited. Towards the coast was a low scrubby-looking region with salt lakes, and to the east it was bounded by a dense brush, beyond which were extensive plains of a barren and scrubby appearance. In the midst of these plains were large fields of a coa.r.s.e wiry-kind of gra.s.s, growing in enormous tufts, five or six feet high, and indicating the places where swamps exist in wet seasons; these were now quite dry, but we had always found the same coa.r.s.e-tufted gra.s.s growing around the margins of the salt lakes, and in those places also where we had found water. This description of country seemed to extend to the base of Wedge Hill, which I intended to have ascended, but the weather was too cloudy to obtain a view from it. The character of the country to the north and north-east was equally low and unpromising, with the exception of two peaks seen at considerable distances apart.
Our stage to-day was sixteen miles to Lake Newland, [Note 17: Named after my friend R. F. Newland, Esq.] a large salt-water lake, with numerous fine and strong springs of excellent water, bubbling up almost in the midst of the salt. In one place one of these springs was surrounded by a narrow strip of soil, and the stream emanating from it took its winding course through the skirts of the salt-water lake itself, inclosed by a very narrow bank of earth, on either side; this slight barrier being the only division between the salt and the fresh water.