We Used The Skins Of The Kangaroos To Cover Our
Flour-Bags, Which Were In A Most Wretched Condition.
Our latitude was 25
degrees 19 minutes 19 seconds.
Nov. 28. - Charley and Brown informed us that they had followed the
watercourse, and had come to a broad river with precipitous banks, which
would not allow any passage for our horses and cattle; they also stated
that the watercourse on which we were encamped, became a rocky gully, and
that it would be impossible to cross it lower down. From this information
I supposed that a river, like the Robinson, rising in many gullies of the
north-east ranges, and flowing in south-west direction was before us; I,
therefore, decided upon heading it. It was, however, very difficult to
find a leading spur, and we frequently came on deep and impassable
gullies, surrounded by a dense thicket of cypresspine, and a great
variety of shrubs peculiar to sandstone rock. After travelling about nine
miles in a N. 15 degrees E. direction, we came to a subordinate range,
and having found, in one of its watercourses, some tolerable grass and a
fine water-hole, we were enabled to encamp. Mr. Roper and Charley, who
had kept a little more to the left, reported that they had been on one of
the heads of the Boyd, and had seen a fine open country to the westward,
and south-west. The "Boyd" was so named in acknowledgment of the liberal
support I had received from Benjamin Boyd, Esq.
Amongst the shrubs along the gullies, a new species of Dodonaea, with
pinnate pubescent leaves, was frequent. Towards evening we had a
thunderstorm from the westward.
Nov. 29. - In reconnoitring the country in the neighbourhood of the camp,
I ascended three mountains, and ascertained that there are five parallel
ranges, striking from north to south, of which the three easterly ones
send their waters to the eastward; whereas the two westerly ones send
theirs to the Boyd, the valley of which has a south-westerly direction.
To the north of the Boyd, there is a steep mountain barrier, striking
from east to west. All these ranges are composed of sandstone, with their
horizontal strata, some of which have a very fine grain. Impressions of
Calamites were observed in one of the gullies. We also saw two kangaroos.
In the water-hole near our camp, there were numerous small brown leeches,
which were very keen in the water, but dropped off as soon as we lifted
our feet out of it. The hornets also were very troublesome. Recent bush
fires and still smoking trees betokened the presence of natives; who
keep, however, carefully out of sight. This country, with its dry scrubby
ranges and its deep rocky gullies, seems to be thinly inhabited; the
natives keeping, probably, to the lower course of Robinson's Creek and of
the Boyd. The descent to the easterly waters is much more gentle; water
remains longer in the deep rocky basins or puddled holes of its creeks,
and the vegetation is richer and greener. Instead of the cypress-pine
scrub, the Corypha-palm and the Casuarina grew here, and invited us to
cool shaded waters; the Corypha-palm promised a good supply of cabbage.
We had a thunder-storm from the southward, which turned from the range to
the eastward. The two last days were cloudless and very hot; but, on the
ranges, a cool breeze was stirring from the northward.
Nov. 30. - I wished to move my camp to a small water-hole about eight
miles east by north, which I had found yesterday; but, though I kept more
to the northward than I thought necessary, we were everywhere intercepted
by deep rocky gullies. Losing much time in heading them, I ventured to
descend one of the more practicable spurs, and, to my great satisfaction,
my bullocks did it admirably well. The valley into which I entered was
very different from these barriers; gentle slopes, covered with open
forest of silver-leaved Ironbark, and most beautifully grassed,
facilitated my gradual descent to the bottom of the valley, which was
broad, flat, thinly timbered with flooded-gum and apple-trees, densely
covered with grass, and, in the bed of the creek which passed through it,
well provided with reedy water-holes. Before I ventured to proceed with
my whole party, I determined to examine the country in advance, and
therefore followed up one of the branches of the main creek, in a
northerly direction. In proceeding, the silver-leaved Ironbark forest
soon ceased, and the valley became narrow and bounded by perpendicular
walls of sandstone, composed of coarse grains of quartz, rising out of
sandy slopes covered with Dogwood (Jacksonia) and spotted-gum. The rock
is in a state of rapid decomposition, with deep holes and caves inhabited
by rock-wallabies; and with abundance of nests of wasps, and wasp-like
Hymenoptera, attached to their walls, or fixed in the interstices of the
loose rock. Through a few gullies I succeeded in ascending a kind of
table-land, covered with a low scrub, in which the vegetation about
Sydney appeared in several of its most common forms. I then descended
into other valleys to the eastward, but all turned to the east and
south-east; and, after a long and patient investigation, I found no
opening through which we could pass with our bullocks. Although I
returned little satisfied with my ride, I had obtained much interesting
information as to the geological character of this singular country.
CHAPTER III
RUINED CASTLE CREEK - ZAMIA CREEK - BIGGE'S MOUNTAIN - ALLOWANCE OF FLOUR
REDUCED - NATIVES SPEAR A HORSE - CHRISTMAS RANGES - BROWN'S
LAGOONS - THUNDER-STORMS - ALBINIA DOWNS - COMET CREEK - NATIVE CAMP.
Dec. 1. - I rode to the eastward from our camp, to ascertain how far we
were from the water-hole to which I had intended to conduct my party.
After having ascended the gullies, and passed the low scrub and
cypress-pine thicket which surrounds them, I came into the open forest,
and soon found our tracks, and the little creek for which I had steered
the day before.
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