Part 18 (1/2)
Sept 18--I ith Charley to reconnoitre the country between Cycas creek and the Robinson A foot-path led us froroves, box and tea-tree forest, and thickets of tea-tree and Cypress pine The latter covered long tracts near the Robinson, and frequently attained a large size
The river was about two hundred yards broad, with sleep banks intersected by deep gullies Two tea-tree creeks, which entered it at the point where our examination stopped, contained fresh water in the upper part of their short courses We crossed the river by a rocky bar, and, below it, was another, on which the natives had erected a rude wall of stone, for catching fish The upper bar was not covered even by the tide; but, above it, the water although very bitter, was not salt We found here the carcase of a crocodile; and the skull of another was found near our ca the river, we followed down its left bank to the lower ford, in order to find soully with two pools of water, near which some natives were encamped; there were, however, only two very old an to chaunt their incantations We were too anxious to examine the water to stand upon ceremony, and, when they saw us approach, they retired across the river to their friends, ere probably occupied at no great distance in collecting the seeds of Pandanus and Cycas In the caround; and soe vessels; e in the ashes, and the feet of the emu were rolled up and concealed between the tea-tree bark of the hut A small packet contained red ochre to colour their bodies, and larger packets contained soaked Cycas seeds, which see fermentation They were of a mealy substance, and har that of the coe stone toreenstone; and so, we chased and shot an emu
Sept 19--We moved our camp to the water-holes at the left bank of the Robinson, about six miles and a half west by north, froitude of the Robinson is, according to ain met the natives,loudly I visited their caain, and found that they had been there to fetch the es behind I ith Brown to examine the country before us The first three or four rassed forest and over soave an unsuccessful chase to three emus The Cycas disappeared as we receded fro tract of stringy-bark forest, mixed with bloodwood and Pandanus, and patches of Cypress pine Here we again observed the gue ribbed seed-vessels, which we found at the upper Lynd, and had called Melaleuca gureat quantity of its ripe seeds We passed several dry swamps, surrounded with tea-tree thickets, and heaps of fresh water mussel shells A rich iron-stone rock cropped out frequently; its surface had the appearance of having been netted
In a tract of broad-leaved tea-tree forest, we came to a watercourse, which led us to a fine creek surrounded with Pandanus and drooping tea-trees, and containing a chain of deep water-holes in its bed Its course was from west to east
Sept 20--We reht, about nine miles north-west from the Robinson On ourtwo flocks of e to Charley, who is a native of Bathurst, the emus of this part of the country are much smaller than those of his country, which frequently yield froulf eh to fry their own liver; and their skin was as dry as that of the native dog A similar difference has been observed in the bustard, which, at the gulf, rarely weighed more than three pounds and a half; whereas individuals of twenty and twenty-eight pounds weight have been shot to the southward
I succeeded here in cooking the seeds of Sterculia, which had recently been gathered; first by separating thehtly, and then pounding and boiling thee with an agreeable flavour, but ate well and appeared to be very nourishi+ng They contained a great quantity of oil
Brown caught an Aga
The nights had been generally cloudy, with the exception of the last, which was clear with heavy dew The days were very hot before the setting in of the sea breeze, which now generally took place at half past eleven
But the refreshi+ng breeze was little felt in the close stringy-bark forest, which, with the dust rising under our bullocks' feet, rendered the heat al
Sept 21--Our journey to-day was in a N 50 degrees W direction for about eleven y-bark forest, in which the Melaleuca and the Cypress pine were either scattered, or formed small patches of forest We then crossed a shallow sandy creek surrounded with thickets of Cypress pine; passed some broad-leaved tea-tree forest, and came to a fine open country tiuest salt-water river we had yet seen, and we turned at once to the WSW in order to head it Deep hollows surrounded by tea-trees, but quite dry, extended parallel to the river We observed several islands in the river; and it was joined by some deep creeks filled with salt water at their lower parts, but dry higher up The whole country was equally open and well grassed The leguminous Ironbark, the white-barked tree of the Abel Tasrew in the forest; and the white water-gu tea-tree at the level of the freshes, and a species of salt-water Casuarina below it
I called this river the ”Macarthur,” in acknowledgment of the liberal support my expedition received from Messrs James and Williah the stringy-bark forest, about four or five miles from the camp of the 20th, we heard the calls of some natives behind us, and I stopped our train to ascertain what they wanted: they were soon perceived running after us, and, when they were sufficiently near, I dismounted and advanced slowly to have a parley, and wasfellows behind him As soon as he saw that I intended to ave his and buckles, he presented me with some of the ornaments he wore on his person As our confidence in each other was thus established, some of my companions and several others of the natives caed presents in a very ah his expression was someild and excited All of them seemed to have been circumcised Charley told me afterwards, that, at s ready to throw, but I do not think that it was more than a simple attitude of defence, in case I should have proved the aggressor
Onabout water, they pointed in the direction which ere going, and seee; Baco! Baco!
Umara!” they frequently repeated with ens of a large water, but not fit to drink, and was very anxious for us to change our course, Mr Roper had understood the sanorant as before us, the pantoue and hopeless guesses It was easy to understand them, e knew the reality These natives must have had some intercourse hite men, or Malays, for they knew the use of a knife, and valued it so highly, that one of thein for one They appeared equally acquainted with the use of our fire-arms No doubt they had seen the Malays, and probably some had accompanied them to the islands; as it is a common custom of the Malays to take natives home with the for trepang at this part of the gulf
As the stage lengthened, our old bullock began to lag behind, and at last lay down incapable of walking any farther In the hope of finding water, I continued my journey until the decline of day compelledthe night, and I was distressed to find that another of the but heavy beast, had suffered so htered, and the nuain reduced
Sept 22--I sent Mr Calvert and Charley back to fetch the bullock, whilst we continued our journey up the river The country rassed At the end of about seven e of sandstone hills with horizontal strata, deeply fissured and worn by the waters and the ate was dry; but, at its southern foot, there was another, which contained several small pools and two deep rocky basins with an ample supply of water Here, therefore, we encamped to wait for our old bullock, which I now resolved to kill; being well aware that he would be a constant drawback to our progress Wallabies were exceedingly numerous, and their tracks as broad as the foot-paths of the natives Our lat was 16 degrees 5 rees 10 minutes
Mr Calvert and Charley had succeeded in driving our bullock to within about three ain lain down As soon as thehim on; but e caone It was impossible even for Charley to track hiht was very cold and foggy along the flats and hollows of the river, we ht By a ht fire, and was consureat loss to me in such a climate, and under daily exposure to aend of which I turned over my face to shade it When the sun rose, we resu the poor beast, after tracking him for six miles across the country; he had evidently raenerally been attracted by shady hollows, in which any one would have reasonably expected to find it He had, however, been completely unsuccessful; the hollows appeared to have been dry for a very long time; he travelled tolerably well to our camp, where he was immediately killed, skinned, quartered, and cut up His meat was not quite so flaccid and watery as that of our last bullock; but it was by no ood He was an old, and a heavy beast, and the experience we had of hily corroborates ues of a long journey, nor travel with a load, unless regularly well fed and watered
On this occasion we reatly A portion of the skin of the bullock was dried, and a certain quantity was added to our soup at night; which we soon found to be not only a great improvement, but to be in itself much preferable to the tasteless meat of our knocked-up bullocks The sto, Spring, ell provided with emu meat We had our last pot of tea on the 22nd, and ere now fairly put on dry beef and water
By a mere accident, we discovered a relutinous secretion of the seed-vessels of a drooping Grevillea John Murphy, having no pockets in his trowsers, put the seeds which he found during the stage into his bosoreat number of Sterculia, and was much inconvenienced by the starry prickles which surround the seeds Afterwards, finding the drooping Grevillea in fruit, he gathered so at the ca the place, he saw, to his greatest horror, that the whole of the skin of the epigastric region was coloured black, and raised into a great nuht that it was caused by the Sterculia prickles having irritated the skin, and rendered it more sensitive to the sharp properties of the exudation of the seed-vessels of Grevillea Brown, however, merely touched the skin of his ar clearly its properties The discoloration of the skin was like the effects of nitrate of silver
Sept 24--When Charley returned with the horses froher part of the river, he told us that he had seen so many wallabies and such numerous tracks of emus and crocodiles, that I sent John and Brown to procure soilis) and a spoonbill According to their account, the river enlarged into an immense sandy bed, like that of the Lynd, and was covered with trees and shrubs, verythose of that river Its course was froe plains extended They had seen three crocodiles, one of which lay in the shade of a Sarcocephalus tree The bean of the Mackenzie grew plentifully along the river, and was covered with ripe seeds In theof the 25th, I sent John and Brown to collect as many of them as they could, for coffee; whilst I and Charley went to reconnoitre the country for water A WNW
course brought us so ullies, and heads of creeks, that we turned to the northward, until we caain into the open box and tea-tree forest, um About four s, and which had just been left by the natives, ere busy in burning the grass along the ridges, and on the fine intervening flats It was here that I again met with a species of Banksia, on the sandy flats ies, which was either a variety of B integrifolia, or a species very nearly allied to it We found it afterwards all over Arnheim's Land, especially on the table land and on the rocky heads of the South Alligator River, where it grew on sandy flats surrounding the rocks, and particularly round sandy swamps The Cypress-pine and Pandanus were frequent, but Sterculia was rare We reenerally anticipated us in the harvest of the ripe fruit of the latter About eight reat number of small dry sandy watercourses, we cae Nymphaea ponds
On our return, we ran down an emu, the stomach of which was full of the fruit of the little Severn tree The ly bitter, that I could scarcely eat it Brown and John had returned with a good supply of beans, and of the large eatable roots of a Convolvolus growing on the plains The forain a pot of coffee at luncheon for the next three weeks This coffee had at first a relaxing effect, but we soon becarounds themselves
Sept 26--We removed our camp to the water-holes I had found the day before We crossed the river at the head of the salt water, where the shallow streaes were all round our last camp, and on the opposite side of the river, where it was joined by a deep Pandanus creek John Murphy toldplace, which had the first ray of the dorsal fin veryDowns; they had been in such a hurry to roast it, that I had no chance of exaly hot, particularly fro sea breeze set in from the north-east