Volume I Part 16 (2/2)

February 27.

As we continued our homeward journey Mr. Brown overtook us. He had found various brands of his cattle on portions of hide about the stock-yard. He a.s.sured me I should find no water at my old encampment where I intended again to halt, for that he had pa.s.sed the previous night there without water. I however had the satisfaction to find as much as ever on the rocky bed of the watercourse where it is not so liable to be absorbed.

ASCEND MOUNT WARROGA.

Having arrived early at this spot I again ascended the range, and proceeded along its crests to one of the highest summits, named Warroga.

From this point I could at length recognise Mount Murulla, Oxley's Pic, Moan, and other pinnacles of the Liverpool range, and with which I now connected my last station upon the Namoi. From Ydire, a hill nearer the camp, I also obtained, in returning, some observations, and one angle of great value with Mount Forbes, much required for the purpose of mapping the country we had explored. On the side of Warroga, we saw a very large black wallaroo which sat looking at us with apparent curiosity.

Scurvy now began to affect the party. We endeavoured to counteract the progress of this disease by plentiful issues of limejuice, and some portable vegetable soups, but of the latter we had but a very small supply. Dysentery did not alarm us much for The Doctor generally set the patients to rights in eight and forty hours with something he found in the medicine chest.

February 28.

The morning was fine* when we again saw the plains of Mullaba on pa.s.sing through the gorge under Mount Ydire. As we travelled across the plains, on which the young verdure, first offspring of the late rain, already began to shoot, four emus were observed quietly feeding at no great distance, apparently heedless of our party. I approached them with my rifle, on a steady old horse, and found that this large quadruped, however strange a sight, did not in the least alarm those gigantic birds, even when I rode close up. I alighted, leveled my rifle over the saddle and fired but missed, as I presumed, for the bird merely performed a sort of pirouette, and then recommenced feeding with the others as before. I had no means of reloading without returning to the party, but I was content with discovering that these birds might be thus approached on horseback for in general the first appearance of men, although miles distant, puts them at once to their speed which, on soft loose earth, perhaps surpa.s.ses that of a horse.

(*Footnote. ”Felicissimos eran los tiempos” (the weather was fine) said Cervantes, which words Smollett literally translated: ”Happy were the times.” Both meanings would apply to our case then.)

The ford of Wallanburra was now our only separation from the christian world. That once pa.s.sed, we might joyfully bid adieu to pestilence and famine, the lurking savage, and every peril of flood and field. Under the sense of perfect security once more, and relieved from the anxiety inseparable from such a charge, every object within the territory of civilised man appeared to me tinged couleur de rose.

RE-CROSS THE PEEL.

The Peel was crossed without difficulty, and on the following morning, leaving the party in charge of Mr. White, I commenced my ride homeward through the woods, followed only by my man Brown; and on reaching Segenhoe I forwarded to the Government my official despatch, announcing the return of the party, and the result of the expedition.

CONCLUSION.

On my arrival at Sydney I learnt that the life of the convict Clarke had been spared, and that my report of the course of the Peel and the Namoi coinciding, as notified in my first despatch, with his description of these rivers, had encouraged the Government to place more confidence in his story. It was now obvious however that the account of his travels beyond Tangulda was little else than pure invention. I examined him in the hulk at Sydney in the presence of the acting Governor, and was quite satisfied that he had never been beyond the Nundewar range. Nevertheless he persisted in his story of the river, and a party of mounted police commanded by Captain Forbes of the 39th regiment repaired to the Namoi, in search of a gang of bushrangers, but not without hopes of finding the Kindur.

That active and enterprising officer reached the Gwydir in lat.i.tude 29 degrees 27 minutes 37 seconds South, longitude 150 degrees 5 minutes East. Tracing upwards its course, or a branch of this river, he arrived near the western extremity of the Nundewar range, and ascended the hill named by him Mount Albuera. Being accompanied by a native of Bathurst, he ascertained that the aboriginal name of the singular-looking hill forming the western extremity of that range was Courada (the name of The Barber's burning mountain) and his plains of Ballyran were found to be those crossed by my party in returning from Snodgra.s.s Lagoon.

This journey of discovery proved that any large river flowing to the north-west must be far to the northward of lat.i.tude 29 degrees. All the rivers south of that parallel, and which had been described by The Barber as falling into such a river as the Kindur, have been ascertained to belong wholly to the basin of the Darling.

The country we traversed was very eligible in many parts for the formation of grazing establishments, as a proof of which it may be mentioned that flocks of sheep soon covered the plains of Mulluba, and that the country around The Barber's stockyard has, ever since the return of the expedition, been occupied by the cattle of Sir John Jamieson. At a still greater distance from the settled districts much valuable land will be found around the base of the Nundewar range. The region beyond these mountains, or between them and the Gwydir, is beautiful; and in the vicinity, or within sight, of the high land, it is sufficiently well watered to become an important addition to the pastoral capabilities of New South Wales.

METEOROLOGICAL JOURNAL KEPT DURING THE EXPEDITION TO THE NORTH-WEST, AND COMMENCED ON CROSSING LIVERPOOL RANGE, DECEMBER 5, 1831.

COLUMN 1: DATE.

COLUMN 2: WINDS, A.M.

COLUMN 3: WINDS, P.M.

COLUMN 4: CLOUDS, A.M.

COLUMN 5: CLOUDS, P.M.

COLUMN 6: THERMOMETER (IN THE SHADE), SUNRISE.

COLUMN 7: THERMOMETER (IN THE SHADE), NOON.

COLUMN 8: THERMOMETER (IN THE SHADE), 4 P.M.

COLUMN 9: THERMOMETER (IN THE SHADE), SUNSET.

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