Stewart, The Moreton Bay Ash, The Little
Severn Tree, And A Second Species Of The Same Genus With Smooth Leaves,
Were Growing On The Same Soil.
The grasses were very various,
particularly in the hollows:
And the fine bearded grass of the Isaacs
grew from nine to twelve feet in height. Charley brought me a branch of a
Cassia with a thyrse of showy yellow blossoms, which he said he had
plucked from a shrub about fifteen feet high.
We encamped about two miles from the foot of a mountain bearing about
N.E. from us; I called it Mount McConnel, after Fred. McConnel, Esq., who
had most kindly contributed to my expedition. The Suttor winds round its
western base, and, at four or five miles beyond it, in a northerly
direction, and in latitude 20 degrees 37 minutes 13 seconds joins a
river, the bed of which, at the junction, is fully a mile broad. Narrow
and uninterrupted belts of small trees were growing within the bed of the
latter, and separated broad masses of sand, through which a stream ten
yards broad and from two to three feet deep, was meandering; but which at
times swells into large sheets of water, occasionally occupying the whole
width of the river. Charley reported that he had seen some black swans,
and large flights of ducks and pelicans. This was the most northern point
at which the black swan was observed on our expedition.
CHAPTER VII
THE BURDEKIN - TRANSITION FROM THE DEPOSITORY TO THE PRIMITIVE
ROCKS - THACKER'S RANGE - WILD FIGS - GEOLOGICAL REMARKS - THE CLARKE - THE
PERRY.
As this place afforded every convenience for killing and curing another
bullock, we remained here for that purpose from the 29th March to the 2nd
of April. The weather was favourable for our operations, and I took two
sets of lunar observations, the first of which gave me longitude 146
degrees 1 minutes, and the second, 145 degrees 58 minutes. The mornings
were generally either cloudless, or with small cumuli, which increased as
the day advanced, but disappeared at sunset; the wind was, as far as I
could judge, northerly, north-easterly, and easterly.
April 2. - The Suttor was reported by Charley to be joined by so many
gullies and small creeks, running into it from the high lands, which
would render travelling along its banks extremely difficult, that I
passed to the east side of Mount McConnel, and reached by that route the
junction of the Suttor with the newly discovered river, which I called
the Burdekin, in acknowledgment of the liberal assistance which I
received from Mrs. Burdekin of Sidney, in the outfit of my expedition.
The course of this river is to the east by south; and I thought that it
would most probably enter the sea in the neighbourhood of Cape Upstart.
Flood marks, from fifteen to eighteen feet above the banks, showed that
an immense body of water occasionally sweeps down its wide channel.
I did not ascend Mount McConnel, but it seemed to be composed of a
species of domite.
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