Part 12 (1/2)
The view I obtained from one of the hills near our yesterday's caes of various extent, forly rocky hills and peaks, which lifted their rugged crests above the open forest that covered their slopes Heaps of rocks with clusters of trees, particularly the s tree, the rose-coloured Sterculia, Exocarpus latifolius, were scattered over the slopes, or grew on the suave the resemblance of the lifted crest of an irritated cockatoo, particularly when huge fantastic blocks were striking out between the vegetation As we travelled along, ranges of hills of this character appeared one after another; to which wallums and wallabies fled for security as we scared them from the river's side; the rose-breasted cockatoo (Cocatua Eos, GOULD) visited the patches of fresh burnt grass, in large flocks; bustards were numerous on the small flats between basaltic hillocks, where they fed on the ripe fruit of Grewia
On the evening of the 27th May, we killed one of our bullocks, which had suffered more than any of the others by the journey, in consequence of his having carried our areat weight of which had raised large lumps on his ribs, which had forreeably disappointed in not finding sufficient fat to fry the liver, which was our favourite dish; even the fat of the marrow had disappeared and had left a watery tissue, which, when grilled for so the taste of the fried yolk of an egg We dried our hts, and calculated rees 30 minutes
May 31--We had scarcely left, our camp, when swarms of crows and kites (Milvus isiurus) took possession of it, after having given us a fair fight during the previous days, whilst ere drying the meat Their boldness was indeed remarkable, and if the natives had as , we travelled over a broken and very stony country, with a stiff soil, but reell There was another small tree, the branches of which were thickly covered with bright green leaves; it had round inferior fruit, about half an inch in diahtly pulpy and acidulous, and reminded me of the taste of the coarse German rye bread In consequence of this resemblance, we called this little tree the Bread tree of the Lynd I ate handfulls of this fruit without the slightest inconvenience A species of Pittosporuuh an open forest of Ironbark and lanceolate box I observed here a very orna branches and linear lanceolate drooping leaves three inches long; it very much resembled a species of Capparis that I had seen at the Isaacs Its blossoms are very small, and the calyx and corolla have each five divisions; the stamens are opposite the petals; it bore a fruit like a small apple, with a hard outside, but pulpy and many seeded within, like Capparis; the calyx was attached to the base of the fruit
The rock was still granitic, with small outbreaks of basalt; the leaflets of white e ant-hills, whose building materials were derived from the decomposed felspar The bed of the river was frequently rocky, and very broad, with low banks and no water The highest flood-ht feet above the level of the bed; these marks were on the trunks of Casuarinas, Melaleucas, and flooded-gueneral had a winterly appearance; and the grass round the carass of the Isaacs, and row on the Suttor and Burdekin, which will yield an excellent feed in the proper season; and, even at the present, neither our bullocks nor horses were starving
The part of the country in which ere, possesses great interest in a ical point of view In the centre of the York Peninsula, between the east coast and the gulf, and on the slopes to the latter, as ht be expected, the northerly and easterly winds which set in so regularly after sunset, as well along the Burdekin as on the basaltic table land, failed, and were succeeded here by slight westerly and easterly breezes, without any great and decided movement in the atmosphere; and westerly winds, which had forer The days, froht the deere heavy, and it was very cold Charley asserted that he had seen ice at our last camp
The black cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus Banksii) has been much more frequently observed of late
We used the last of our salt at the last camp; and e should do without it, was a question of considerable interest As I had never taken salt withexpeditions, and had never felt the want of it with dried beef, either grilled or raw, I recommended my coood dry beef, without any farther preparation, was rilled, it became ashy and burnt, particularly ithout fat; and, if stewed, although it yielded a good broth, it becah and tasteless
The meat of the last bullock was very hard and juiceless, and so was to be done to soften it, and make it palatable: as we had no fat, we frequently steah, without facilitating in the least thebetween our teeth, rendered thely tender, and caused us much pain After a week's trial, and several experi it, and in a very short time relished it as much without salt, as we had formerly done with it
CHAPTER IX
THE STARRY HEAVENS--SUBStitUTE FOR COFFEE--SAWFISH--TWO-STORIED GUNYAS OF THE NATIVES--THE MITChell--MURPHY'S PONY POISONED--GREEN TREE-ANT--NEW BEVERAGE--CROCODILE--AUDACITY OF KITES--NATIVES NOT FRIENDLY--THE CAMP ATTACKED AT NIGHT BY THEM--MESSRS ROPER AND CALVERT WOUNDED, AND MR GILBERT KILLED
June 1--Mr Gilbert and Charley ht, to look for water, but, as they did not return in the , and as water had been found, after they left, about foura swarht down the river, I concluded that we should ood supply of water lower down, and, therefore, passed the nearest water-hole; but, the country and the bed of the river being exceedingly rocky, our progress was very slow After proceeding about eight miles, we came to the junction of a river from the south-ith the Lynd; and encarees 45 es, in a west-north-west direction
June 2--When we left our ca, Mr Gilbert and Charley returned froht, but, surrounded as they were by rocky hills and gullies, had been compelled to encamp We travelled about seventhe Lynd from the north east The river divided several ti rocky hills and ridges It was e reedy lagoons An elegant Acacia, about thirty or thirty-five feet high, grew on its slaucous bipinnate leaves, long broad pods, and oval seeds, half black, and half bright red
June 3--We continued our journey down the river, about seven or eight miles The first three miles were very tolerable, over liain, the supply of water increased; and we passed one large poel, in particular, with es approached the banks of the river on both sides, and forly rocky, that it was out of the question to follow it We, therefore, ascended the hills and mountains, and with our foot-sore cattle passed over beds of sharp shi+ngles of porphyry We crept like snails over these rocky hills, and through their gullies filled with boulders and shi+ngles, until I found it necessary to halt, and allowthe afternoon, I examined the country in advance, and found that the mountains extended five miles farther, and were as rocky as those we had already passed But, after that, they receded from the river, and the country becaht forward ain descended into the valley of the river, and encamped near a fine pool of water in its sandy bed, in latitude 17 degrees 34 ht, I met a family of natives who had just co us, they ran away and left their things, without eventheir camp, I found their koolimans, (vessels to keep water) full of bee bread, of which I partook, leaving for pays of our bullocks In their dillies I found the fleshy roots of a bean, which grows in a sandy soil, and has solitary yellow blossoms; the tuber of a vine, which has pal to a water-plant; a fine specie cymbium (a sea shell), besides other trifles common to almost all the natives we had seen Their koolie, almost like small boats, and were y-bark tree There was no animal food in the camp
The whole extent of the es, was of porphyry, with crystals of quartz and felspar in a grey paste; on both sides of it, the rock was granite and pege, I observed talc-schist in the bed of the river
The vegetation of the forest, and along the river, did not vary; but, on the eneral course of the Lynd, from my last latitude to that of the 4th June, was north-west
Sleeping in the open air at night, with a bright sky studded with its stars above us, ere naturally led to observe es of the heavens; and my companions became curious to know the nahtly observation had now, perhaps for the first time, made them familiar We had reached a latitude which allowed us not only to see the brightest stars of the southern, but, also of the northern heet the intense pleasure I experienced, and that evinced by my companions, when I first called the, to see Ursa Major The starry heaven is one of those great features of nature, which enter unconsciously into the coives us painful longings, the nature of which we frequently do not understand, but which we call home sickness:--and their sudden re-appearance touches us like ht Every new moon also was hailed with an almost superstitious devotion, and my Blackfellows vied with each other to discover its thin crescent, and would be alry with liht in the brilliant sky which succeeds the setting of the sun The questions: where e at the last new moon? how far have we travelled since? and where shall we be at the next?--were invariably discussed ast us; calculations wereus to the end of our journey, and there was no lack of advice offered as to what should, and ought to be done
At several of our last ca of oere heard the whole night; and i of several kinds of crickets was generally heard, the sound of which was frequently soof our bell At Separation Creek, we first -tailed opossu cry
June 5--We travelled, in a direct line, about nine h the distance along its banks was e bend at first to the northward, and afterwards, being turned by a fine conspicuous short range, to the ard I nae after W Kirchner, Esq, another of the supporters of my expedition The river was here, in some places, fully half awhich a es, the river becae creek joined it from the eastward; and another froe The flats increased on both side of the river, and were openly timbered with box and narrow-leaved Ironbark The rock near our yesterday's camp was talc-schist Farther down sienite was observed, which contained so e occasionally into hornblende rock, with scattered crystals of quartz Granite and pegoons near the creek fro tree of the Burdekin, becaain more frequent; but Sarcocephalus was the characteristic tree of the river The Acacia of Expedition Range and of the upper Lynd, grew to a coe size in the open forest We observed a cotton tree (Cochlosperh entirely leafless; and we could not help thinking how great an ornaardens of the colony
As the water-holes becaer, water-fowl beca several wood-ducks and a Malacorhyncus membranaceus The bean of the Mackenzie was very abundant in the sandy bed of the river; we roasted and ate some of its fruit; it was, however, too heavy, and produced indigestion: Mr Phillips pounded them, and they made an excellent substitute for coffee, which I preferred to our tea, which, at that tith
June 6--We travelled about nine rees 30 e was over an undulating country timbered with box and Ironbark; but the latter part was hilly and mountainous: the mountains were so rocky, where they entered the bed of the river, that ere obliged to leave its banks, and travel over a very difficult country
On the sreith a few scattered Moreton Bay ash trees; on the bergues of the river we found the white cedar (Melia azedarach), Clerodendron; an asclepiadaceous shrub with large triangular seed-vessels; and, on the hills, the blood-wood and stringy-bark The rock, as far as I exa hills of an almost conical form
June 7--The same difficult country not only continued, but rather increased Charley told ht, on his return from a walk, that he had found sandstone To-day we travelled over porphyries like those of the last stage: but, about four miles from the last camp, steep sandstone rocks with excavations appeared on our left, at some distance from the river, from which they were separated by porphyry; but, farther on, they approached the river on both sides, and for the bed of the river itself Two large creeks joined the river fro, and also made the river run until the streae, however, the strea river of the expedition: for the Condah not constantly, was raised by rains, and showed the origin of its supply, by thewhere we left it; and the Burdekin, with several of its tributaries, was running as far as we followed it The waters of the Dawson, the Burdekin, and the Lynd, were very clear, and received their constant supply fros
We passed a caun, which Mr Gilbert happened to fire when very near them; this he did in his anxiety to procure a pair of Geophaps plueons had been first observed by Brown in the course of our yesterday's stage, who shot two of theood specimens We frequently saw theether, running with great rapidity and with elevated crest over the ground, and preferring the shady rocks along the sandy bed of the river I tried several methods to render the potatoes, which we had found in the ca destroyed their sickening bitterness At last, I pounded and washed them, and procured their starch, which was entirely tasteless, but thickened rapidly in hot water, like arrow-root; and was very agreeable to eat, wanting only the addition of sugar to make it delicious; at least so we fancied