From Time
To Time We Crossed Low Ridges Covered With Scrub, And Cut Through By Deep
Gullies, Stretching Towards The River, Which Became Narrower And Very
Tortuous In Its Course; Its Line Of Flooded-Gum Trees, However, Became
More Dense.
Within the reedy bed of the river, not quite five miles from
the camp, we found wells of the
Natives, not a foot deep, but amply
supplied with water, and, at four miles farther, we came to a water-hole,
in a small creek, which had been supplied by the late rains; we also
passed several fine scrub creeks, but they were dry. About ten miles from
the wells another deep scrub creek was found, on the right hand of the
river, full of water. Its bed was overgrown with reeds, and full of
pebbles of concretions of limestone, and curious trunks of fossil trees,
and on its banks a loose sandstone cropped out. Here we found the skull
of a native, the first time that we had seen the remains of a human body
during our journey. Near the scrub, and probably in old camping places of
the natives, we frequently saw the bones of kangaroos and emus. I mention
this fact in reference to the observations of American travellers, who
very rarely met with bones in the wilderness; and to remark, that the
climate of Australia is so very dry as to prevent decomposition, and that
rapacious animals are few in number - the native dog probably finding a
sufficiency of living food.
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