Thus
I Parted With My Paper For Drying Plants, With My Specimens Of Wood, With
A Small Collection Of Rocks, Made By Mr. Gilbert, And With All The
Duplicates Of Our Zoological Specimens.
Necessity alone, which compelled
me to take this step, reconciled me to the loss.
Our bullock came in during the afternoon, and was immediately killed,
skinned, and quartered.
Oct. 8. - We cut the meat into slices, and put them out to dry.
Oct. 9. - I went with Brown to examine the country along the river, which
I called "Limmen Bight River;" from its disemboguing into Limmen Bight.
Charley had been at the upper part of the creek on which we were
encamped, and found it running and fresh; which made me believe, that
those pools of very brackish water we had previously seen, belonged to a
different watercourse. I rode with Brown to the westward, over a
succession of ironstone ridges covered with stringy-bark scrub. These
ridges formed steep headlands into the broad flat valley of the river.
Along the valley, bare sandy and boggy plains alternated with tea-tree
thickets and mangrove swamps, in one of which our horses got deeply
bogged. After five miles we came on a large piece of salt water, which,
according to Brown, was a tributary creek of the river. It flowed between
low banks fringed with tea-trees. We followed a foot-path of the natives,
who seemed very numerous, which led towards another range west by south;
and crossed several tea-tree creeks, Pandanus groves, and swamps full of
a high blady grass. We observed some springs, with but little water
however, though densely surrounded with ferns (Osmunda). After about
seven miles, we were stopped by a fern swamp full of fine box-trees, with
a thick jungle of high stiff grasses and ferns (Blechnum). A small
running creek formed its outlet, and contained a chain of deep ponds
covered with Nymphaeas, and surrounded with Typha (bull-rush), the
youngest part of the leaves of which is very tolerable eating. Large
swarms of ducks (Leptotarsis Eytoni, GOULD), rose with their peculiar
whistling noise, at our approach.
Oct. 10. - I moved my camp to the chain of lagoons, which we found
yesterday; and our horses and cattle enjoyed the fine feed. The largest
hill of the range to the westward, bore south-west from our camp. A
species of Hibiscus with large pink flowers, but small insignificant
leaves, and another small malvaceous shrub with white flowers grew round
the camp.
Oct. 11. - Last night we saw long flights of geese (Anseranas melanoleuca,
GOULD) and swarms of ducks, passing our camp from west to east; which
made us very naturally suppose that large lagoons of fresh water existed
at the head of the fern swamp, of which our little Typha brook formed the
outlet. Brown and Charley were very desirous of getting some of these
geese, and concocted a plan either to induce me to follow the brook up,
or to stop me altogether.
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