On One Of The Lagoons, Charley Shot A Parra Gallinacea, A
Bird Which Mr. Gilbert Had Observed Only At Port Essington.
A well beaten
path of the natives showed that they were numerous in this part of the
country:
We saw many of their camping places during the stage; and the
fires of their camps were numerous; we saw a party of them, but they were
too frightened to allow us to approach. Our latitude was 18 degrees 44
minutes 48 seconds. Our course was about N.N.W.
May 4. - We ascended the basaltic ridges, and reaching the table land,
found it perfectly level, openly timbered, well grassed, but occasionally
stony, by which our poor foot-sore bullocks suffered severely. About five
miles north-west by west from our camp, we discovered an extensive valley
with large lagoons and lakes, and a most luxuriant vegetation, bounded by
blue distant ranges, and forming the most picturesque landscape we had
yet met with. A chain of lagoons connected by a reedy brook followed the
outlines of the table land, along the foot of its steep slopes. We
descended by a tolerably gentle slope into the valley, and encamped near
the reedy brook, which must be the same as that on which, lower down, our
last camp was formed. Water, grass, hills, mountains, plains, forest
land; all the elements of a fine pasturing country, were here united.
During one of the last stages, we discovered a leguminous tree, with the
dark fissured bark of the Ironbark, but with large bipinnate leaves, the
leaflets oblong, an inch in length; the pods broad and thin, and two or
three inches long: this tree is common all over the northern part of the
continent, and was found growing abundantly around Victoria, the
principal settlement of Port Essington.
Mr. Roper and Brown, upon an excursion after ducks, which were very
numerous on the lagoons, met with Blackfellows, who were willing to
accost Brown, but could not bear the sudden sight of a white face. In
trying to cross the valley, my course was intercepted every way by deep
reedy and sedgy lagoons, which rendered my progress impossible. I saw,
however, that this valley was also floored with a sheet of lava hollowed
out into numerous deep basins, in which the water collected and formed
the lagoons.
May 5. - I went with Charley to reconnoitre the upper part of the reedy
brook, with a view to find a passage over the table land to the westward;
at the same time I sent Mr. Roper and Brown to trace the river through
the lagoons, and to examine whether there was any connection between
them. I followed the base of the basaltic table land, along which the
brook came down, and, after a two miles' ride on its banks, through oak
trees, low fern trees, and several bush trees, found that it came down a
valley deeply cut into the table land. The floor of the valley was of
basaltic rock, and its steep slopes were covered with boulders of the
same formation.
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