When We Approached The Water-Hole On Which We Were Going To Encamp, John
Observed A Fine Large Iguana In The Water, Which Was So Strikingly
Coloured That He Thought It Different From Those We Had Previously Seen.
Xyris, Philydrum, a species of Xerotes, and an aromatic spreading herb,
grew in great abundance round the water.
I found a great quantity of the
latter in the stomach of the emu. A species of Crotolaria, two or three
feet high, with simple woolly oblong or oblongo-lanceolate leaves, and
with a beautiful green blossom of the form and size of that of Kennedya
rubicunda, grew in the bed of the river. Great numbers of large bright
yellow hornets, with some black marks across the abdomen, visited the
water. Flies were exceedingly troublesome: but the mosquitoes annoyed us
very rarely, and only where water was very abundant. The nights have been
very dewy, but not cold. The wind in the morning from the south-east,
veering round to the northward during the day.
Sept. 9. - We travelled north-west by north, and for several miles,
through a scrubby stringy-bark forest, when we came to steep sandstone
ridges, composed of a hard flaggy horizontally stratified rock. Higher
ranges were seen to the W.N.W. and west; and I found myself fairly caught
between rocky hills when I least expected them, but hoped to enter upon a
country corresponding in its character with the low coast marked down in
the map, in this latitude. I turned to the northward, and found a
practicable path between the hills, and came, after crossing a small
sandy creek to a fine salt-water river, as broad as any we had seen. High
hills were at its left bank; and, as we followed it up in a direction S.
60 degrees W., the right became more broken, and the vegetation richer. A
very conspicuous foot-path led us through heaps of cockle shells to a
fishing station of the natives, where they seemed to have a permanent
camp; the huts being erected in a substantial manner with poles, and
thatched with grass and the leaves of Pandanus; there were extensive fire
places containing heaps of pebbles; and an abundance of fish bones. The
weir was, as usual, formed with dry sticks, across a shallow part of the
river. A spring of fresh water was below the camp at the edge of high
water. As the tide was high, and an abundant supply of fresh water was
found in a creek which joined the river a few hundred yards from the
fishery, we encamped on the creek, in lat. 16 degrees 28 minutes 57
seconds, lon. 137 degrees 23 minutes. I consider this river to be the
"Abel Tasman" of the Dutch navigators: and that it is probably joined by
the Calvert. Its flats were well-grassed, and very openly timbered with
bloodwood, stringy-bark, leguminous Ironbark, then in blossom, and a
large tree with white smooth bark, spreading branches, and pinnate
leaves. The salt water Hibiscus (Paritium) and Acacia (Inga
moniliformis), were also in blossom.
Charley, Brown, and John, went to spear some fish, but the tide was out,
the water shallow, and the fish were gone. Charley saw here, for the
first time, the Torres Straits pigeon (Carpophaga luctuosa, GOULD.)
The little creek, at which we were encamped, had formed its channel
through sandstone rock; and its narrow bed, containing a ferruginous
water supplied by springs, was crowded with high reeds, and shaded with
various trees of a dense green foliage. Frogs croaked, and crickets
chirped, the whole night; and the call of goat-suckers, and the hooting
of owls, were heard in every direction; large fish were splashing in the
water; wallabies were bleating as they came down to the creek, and saw
our horses; and mosquitoes by their loud humming prevented our sleeping.
This noise of animal life during the night formed an agreeable contrast
to the dead silence which we had observed at almost all our camps around
the gulf, with the exception of the one occupied on the 1st September,
and of that at the Marlow, where the flying-fox was the merry reveller of
night.
Sept. 10. - We were again too late for low tide, to cross at the fishery
of the natives, and consequently travelled about two miles and a half
higher up, passing in our way three other fisheries; where we crossed the
river, the bed was very wide, and covered with shrubs, shingle, and
blocks of sandstone; but its rapid stream of fresh water was only about
fifteen or twenty yards broad, and three feet deep. At the left side of
the river, we saw four or five fine Cycas palms, from eight to ten feet
high, and the stem from six to nine inches in diameter. High rocky
sandstone ridges extended on the same side, in a direction parallel to
the river, and at the distance of two or three miles. They were covered
with scrub, open box, and stringy-bark forest; and the wallabi and
kangaroo tracks going down to the river, were very numerous. The
appearance of the Cypress pine, which formed groups within the
stringy-bark forest, and particularly on the rises and sandy slopes, was
of a most striking character. A new species of Grevillea, and also of
Calythrix, were found in blossom. Beyond the ridges, the stringy-bark
forest was obstructed by the leguminous shrub with broad stem (Bossiaea).
Several Pandanus creeks went down to the north-east; and the second
contained a little water. After travelling about twelve miles to the
north-west by north, we encamped at a fine creek with large pools of
water, in lat. 16 degrees 21 minutes. During the night, we heard the
well-known note of what we called the "Glucking bird," when we first met
with it, in the Cypress pine country, at the early part of our
expedition. Its re-appearance with the Cypress pine corroborated my
supposition, that the bird lived on the seeds of that tree.
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