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 compelled me to encamp.
We watched our bullocks as usual during the night, and I was distressed
to find that another of them, a young but heavy beast, had suffered so
much, that I feared he would soon have to be slaughtered, and the number
of our pack bullocks be again reduced.
Sept. 22. - I sent Mr. Calvert and Charley back to fetch the bullock,
whilst we continued our journey up the river. The country maintained the
same character, being open and well-grassed. At the end of about seven
miles, we came to a range of sandstone hills with horizontal strata,
deeply fissured and worn by the waters and the atmosphere. A creek at the
northern side of the range 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 minutes 26 seconds; long. according to reckoning,
136 degrees 10 minutes.
Mr. Calvert and Charley had succeeded in driving our bullock to within
about three miles of our camp, where he had again lain down. As soon as
the moon rose, I went with Charley to bring him on; but when we came to
the place where they had left him, he was gone. It was impossible even
for Charley to track him in the uncertain moonlight; and, as the night
was very cold and foggy along the flats and hollows of the river, we made
a fire, to wait for daylight. By a most unfortunate accident, my hat
caught fire, and was consumed in an instant; it was a great loss to me in
such a climate, and under daily exposure to a most powerful sun. I had to
make shift with a small bag made of strong canvass, the long end of which
I turned over my face to shade it. When the sun rose, we resumed our
search, and succeeded in finding the poor beast, after tracking him for
six miles across the country; he had evidently rambled in search of
water, and had generally 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
means good. He was an old, and a heavy beast, and the experience we had
of him strongly corroborates my observations, that such beasts can
neither bear the fatigues of a long journey, nor travel with a load,
unless regularly well fed and watered.
On this occasion we made a grand discovery, of which we afterwards
profited greatly. 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 stomach was also made
use of on this occasion, as our useful dog, Spring, was well provided
with emu meat. We had our last pot of tea on the 22nd, and we were now
fairly put on dry beef and water.
By a mere accident, we discovered a remarkable medicinal property of the
glutinous 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 bosom, close to the skin, where he had already
deposited a great number of Sterculia, and was much inconvenienced by the
starry prickles which surround the seeds. Afterwards, finding the
drooping Grevillea in fruit, he gathered some capsules and placed them as
before stated. Upon arriving at the camp, he felt great pain; and, on
examining 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 number of painful blisters. Upon his showing it to me, I thought
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 arm with the matter, when blisters immediately rose; showing
clearly its properties. The discoloration of the skin was like the
effects of nitrate of silver.
Sept. 24. - When Charley returned with the horses from a higher 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 some game. They returned with only a red wallabi (Halmaturus
agilis) 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, very much resembling those of that river. Its course
was from the westward; and in that direction large 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 the morning of 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.
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