I Was In Great Anxiety,
And Blamed Myself Severely For Having Committed Such An Act Of
Imprudence.
Charley went, however, a second time on foot, and succeeded
in finding everything but the calabash, which was a great loss to our
dog.
In the camping place of the natives, I found a large round stone of
porphyry, upon which the natives were accustomed to break the
seed-vessels of Pandanus. I could discover no indications of this rock in
the creek, not even the smallest pebble; and I am consequently inclined
to think that this stone was brought by the natives from a considerable
distance to the south-west. But, from the broken pieces of granite of our
last camp, it became evident that a rocky primitive country, like that of
the upper Lynd, could not be very distant. Even the vegetation agreed
well with that of the same locality; as the dwarf Grevillea, G.
chrysodendrum, and the falcate Grevillea of the upper Lynd, were here
again observed. The tea-trees along the banks of the creek, as far as the
salt-water extended, were leafless and dead. This may be accounted for by
a succession of dry years in which usual freshes have not taken place;
and by the supposition that the drooping tea-tree cannot live on water
entirely salt.
Sept. 6. - We travelled twelve miles north-west, through Pandanus and
bloodwood forest, alternating with scrub, stringy-bark forest, and
tea-tree thickets; and, in the latter part of the stage, through
broad-leaved tea-tree forest. We encamped at a fine river, with a bed
three hundred yards broad from bank to bank, but with a narrow channel of
running water. This channel was fringed with the water Pandanus, which we
first observed at Beames's Brook; the sandy bed was covered with drooping
tea-trees and Grevillea chrysodendrum. Charley shot a bustard, the
stomach of which was filled with seeds of Grewia, with small yellow
seeds, and some beetles. On this stage, we again passed some of those
remarkable dry tea-tree swamps - surrounded with heaps of very large
mussel shells - evidently showing that they had been a long time under
water, though they were now overgrown with small tea-trees, perhaps five
or six years old; and which proved, like the drooping tea-trees on the
banks of the creek, that the last few years had been exceedingly dry. I
supposed the river to be the Van Alphen of the Dutch navigators, as its
latitude, where I crossed it, was about 16 degrees 41 minutes, and its
longitude I calculated to be 137 degrees 48 minutes.
Sept. 7. - We travelled about nine miles N. N. W. to latitude 16 degrees
35 minutes; the first part of the stage was scrubby, the latter part
undulating with a fine open stringy-bark forest. The trees were tall, but
rarely more than a foot in diameter. Here we met with hard baked
sandstone, of a whitish grey colour. About seven miles from our camp, we
saw a low blue range to the westward; and, soon after, passed a sandy
Pandanus creek, with scrubby broken banks:
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