At The End Of The Stage, We Came
To A Large Pandanus Creek, Which We Followed Until We Found Some Fine
Pools Of Water In Its Bed.
My companions had, for several days past,
gathered the unripe fruits of Coniogeton arborescens, Br.; which, when
boiled, imparted an agreeable acidity to the water, and when thus
prepared tasted tolerable well.
When ripe, they became sweet and pulpy,
like gooseberries, although their rind was not very thick. This
resemblance induced us to call the tree "The little Gooseberry tree." At
the table land, and along the upper South Alligator River, it was a tree
from twenty-five to thirty feet high, with a fresh green shady foliage;
but, at the Cobourg Peninsula, it dwindled into a low shrub. The fruit
was much esteemed there by the natives; for, although the tree was of
smaller size, the fruit was equally large and fine.
Nov. 17. - We travelled four or five miles through Banksia, and
Melaleuca-gum forest, crossed several rocky creeks; and followed down the
largest of them; which in its whole extent was exceedingly rocky. The
rock was generally in horizontal layers. There were many high falls in
the bed, which compelled me to leave the creek, and proceed on the rising
ground along its banks, when suddenly the extensive view of a magnificent
valley opened before us. We stood with our whole train on the brink of a
deep precipice, of perhaps 1800 feet descent, which seemed to extend far
to the eastward. A large river, joined by many tributary creeks coming
from east, south-east, south-west and west, meandered through the valley;
which was bounded by high, though less precipitous ranges to the westward
and south-west from our position; and other ranges rose to the northward.
I went on foot to the mouth of the creek; but the precipice prevented my
moving any farther; another small creek was examined, but with the same
result. We were compelled to move back, and thence to reconnoitre for a
favourable descent. Fortunately the late thunder-storms had filled a
great number of small rocky basins in the bed of the creek; and, although
there was only a scanty supply of a stiff grass, our cattle had filled
themselves sufficiently the previous night to bear a day's privation. In
the afternoon, Charley accompanied me on foot in a northerly direction
(for no horse could move between the large loose sandstone blocks), and
we examined several gullies and watercourses, all of a wild and rocky
character, and found it impossible to descend, in that direction, into
the valley. Charley shot a Wallooroo just as it was leaping, frightened
by our footsteps, out of its shady retreat to a pointed rock. Whilst on
this expedition, we observed a great number of grasshoppers, of a bright
brick colour dotted with blue: the posterior part of the corselet, and
the wings were blue; it was two inches long, and its antennae three
quarters of an inch.
Nov. 18. - We returned to the creek in which we had encamped on the 16th,
and pitched our tents a little lower down, where some rich feed promised
our cattle a good treat. Immediately after luncheon, I started again with
Charley down the creek, myself on horseback, but my companion on foot. It
soon became very rocky, with gullies joining it from both sides; but,
after two miles, it opened again into fine well-grassed lightly timbered
flats, and terminated in a precipice, as the others had done. A great
number of tributary creeks joined it in its course, but all formed
gullies and precipices. Many of these gullies were gently sloping
hollows, filled with a rich black soil, and covered with an open brush
vegetation at their upper part; but, lower down, large rocks protruded,
until the narrow gully, with perpendicular walls, sunk rapidly into the
deep chasm, down which the boldest chamois hunter would not have dared to
descend. I now determined to examine the country to the southward; and,
as it was late and my horse very foot-sore, I remained for the night at
the next grassy flat, and sent Charley back to order my companions to
remove the camp next morning as far down the creek as possible, in order
to facilitate the examination, which, on foot, in this climate, was
exceedingly exhausting.
Nov. 19. - I appeased my craving hunger, which had been well tried for
twenty hours, on the small fruit of a species of Acmena which grew near
the rocks that bounded the sandy flats, until my companions brought my
share of stewed green hide. We went about three miles farther down the
creek, and encamped in the dense shade of a wide spreading Rock box, a
tree which I mentioned a few days since. From this place I started with
Brown in one direction, and Charley in another, to find a passage through
the labyrinth of rocks. After a most fatiguing scramble up and down rocky
gullies, we again found ourselves at the brink of that beautiful valley,
which lay before us like a promised land. We had now a more extensive
view of its eastern outline, and saw extending far to our right a
perpendicular wall, cut by many narrow fissures, the outlet of as many
gullies; the same wall continued to the left, but interrupted by a steep
slope; to which we directed our steps, and after many windings succeeded
in finding it. It was indeed very steep. Its higher part was composed of
sandstone and conglomerate; but a coarse-grained granite, with much
quartz and felspar, but little mica and accidental hornblende, was below.
The size of its elements had rendered it more liable to decomposition,
and had probably been the cause of the formation of the slope. In the
valley, the creek murmured over a pebbly bed, and enlarged from time to
time, into fine sheets of water. We rested ourselves in the shade of its
drooping tea-trees; and, observing another slope about two miles farther,
went to examine it, but finding that its sandstone crest was too steep
for our purpose, we returned to mark a line of road from the first slope
to our camp.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 123 of 139
Words from 124352 to 125391
of 141354
