Volume II Part 9 (2/2)

The course of the river was very tortuous, but still I in vain traced the channel for water, even in the sharpest of its turnings, until long after it was quite dark. We encamped at length near a small muddy hole discovered with the a.s.sistance of our female guide, after having travelled nineteen miles. I found the lat.i.tude of this camp to be 33 degrees 52 minutes 59 seconds, which was so near that of Mr. Oxley's lowest point according to his book that I concluded we must be close to it. Fortunately we found some natives at this waterhole who told us that a long while ago white men had been encamped on the opposite side of the Kalare, and that the place where they had marked a tree was not very far distant, but that it had recently been burnt down. We saw today for the first time on the Kalare the red-top c.o.c.katoo (Plyctolophus leadbeateri).

NATIVES' ACCOUNT OF THE RIVERS LOWER DOWN.

May 4.

This morning it rained and, considering the long journey of yesterday, I gave the cattle rest. Here the natives again told us of Oolawambiloa, near a great river coming from the north, and only five days' journey from where we should make the Murrumbidgee. They also told us that the latter river was joined by another coming from the south before it reached Oolawambiloa.

We had now therefore the direct testimony of the natives that the Darling (for it could be no other) joined the Murray and that the river Lachlan did not lose its channel here as supposed by Mr. Oxley, but that in five days' journey further we might expect to trace it into the Murrumbidgee.

MR. OXLEY'S LOWEST CAMP ON THE LACHLAN.

May 5.

The ground being very heavy the cattle in the carts proceeded but slowly along the plains to the northward of the Lachlan; and while the party followed Mr. Stapylton I went along the bank with the natives to visit Mr. Oxley's last camp, which was not above a mile from that we had left.

On my way I crossed a bed of fine gravel, a circ.u.mstance the more remarkable, not only because gravel was so uncommon on these muddy plains, but because Mr. Oxley had also remarked that no stone of any kind could be seen within five miles of the place. This gravel consisted of sand and pebbles of quartz about the size of a pea. Our female guide, who appeared to be about thirty years of age, remembered the visit of the white men; and she this day showed me the spot where Mr. Oxley's tent stood, and the root with some remains of the branches of a tree near it which had been burnt down very recently, and on which she said some marks were cut.

SLOW GROWTH OF TREES.

Several trees around had been sawn and on two, about thirty yards west from the burnt stump, were the letters WW and IW 1817. The tree bearing the last letters was a goborro or dwarf box, and had been killed two years before by the natives stripping off a sheet of bark; but from the growth of the solid wood around the carved part it appeared that this tree had increased in diameter about an inch and a half in seventeen years; the whole diameter, including the bark, being sixteen inches. We immediately dug around the burnt stump in search of the bottle deposited there by Mr. Oxley, but without success. The gins said that he rode forward some way beyond, and marked another tree at the furthest place he reached. I accordingly went there with them, and they showed me a tree marked on each side but, the cuttings being in the bark only, they were almost grown out. It stood beside a small branch or outlet of the river, which led into a hollow of polygonum. The natives also said that one of Mr. Oxley's men was nearly drowned in trying to cross this but that they got him out. They positively a.s.sured me that this was the farthest point Mr. Oxley reached; and it seemed the more probable as during a flood the deep and narrow gully extending between the river and the field of polygonum must have then been under water, and a most discouraging impediment to the traveller. I place this spot in lat.i.tude 33 degrees 45 minutes 10 seconds South; longitude 144 degrees 56 minutes East. The natives further informed me that three white men on horseback who had canoes (boats) on the Murrumbidgee had visited this part of the Lachlan since, and that after crossing it and going a little way beyond, they had returned.

A TRIBE OF NATIVES COME TO US.

In the evening, while a heavy shower fell, the natives who had come with me gave the alarm that a powerful tribe was advancing with scouts ahead, as when they mean mischief. We were immediately under arms and soon saw a small tribe consisting chiefly of old men, women, and children, approaching our party. They sat down very quietly near us, lighting their fire and making huts without saying a word; and on Piper going to them we soon came to a good understanding.

MR. OXLEY'S BOTTLE.

From them we learnt that, after the tree at Oxley's camp had been burnt down, a bottle had been found by a child who broke it, and that it contained a letter. This information saved us all further search, although it had been my intention to halt next day and send back six men to dig for the bottle; I had purposed also to have promised a full one in exchange for it, if they had found it.

May 6.

The chief of the new tribe had ordered a man to accompany us as guide, but after going a mile or two he fell back and left us; and we were thus compelled again to depend on the information of the gin for the situation of water. I regretted exceedingly the defection of this envoy, by whose means I hoped to have been pa.s.sed from tribe to tribe.

The gra.s.s had improved very much on the banks of the Lachlan. A vast plain of very firm surface extended southward, but not a tree was visible upon it, while on our side the country was wooded in long stripes of trees.

WALJEERS LAKE.

About seven miles from the camp the river, the general course of which had been for several days about south-west, turned southward; and we came in sight of Waljeers. The natives had for some days told us of Waljeers, which proved to be the bed of a lake nearly circular and about four miles in circ.u.mference. It was perfectly dry, but in wet seasons it must be a fine sheet of water. As we approached its banks I observed that the surface, which was somewhat elevated above the country nearer the river, consisted of firm red soil with large bushes of atriplex, mesembryanthemum, and other shrubs peculiar to that kind of surface, which is so common on the left bank of the Bogan.

TRIGONELLA SUAVISSIMA.

The whole expanse of the lake was at this time covered with the richest verdure and the perfumed gale which:

fanned the cheek and raised the hair, Like a meadow breeze in spring,

heightened the charm of a scene so novel to us. I soon discovered that this fragrance proceeded from the plant resembling clover which we found so excellent as a vegetable during the former journey.* A young crop of it grew in scanty patches near the sh.o.r.es of the lake, and I recognised it with delight, as it seems the most interesting of Australian plants.

The natives here called it Calomba and told us that they eat it. Barney said it grew abundantly at Murroagin after rain. It seems to spring up only on the richest of alluvial deposits, in the beds of lagoons during the limited interval between the recession of the water and the desiccation of the soil under a warm sun.** Exactly resembling new mown hay in the perfume which it gives out even when in the freshest state of verdure, it was indeed sweet to sense and lovely to the eye in the heart of a desert country. When at sea off Cape Leeuwin in September 1827, after a three months' voyage and before we made the land, I was sensible of a perfume from the sh.o.r.e which this plant recalled to my recollection.

(*Footnote. Trigonella suavissima, Volume 1.)

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