Larger Fish Exist, Probably, In The Deep Rocky
Basins Of Water Which We Occasionally Passed; But We Never Succeeded In
Catching Any; Nor Did We Hear Any Of The Splashing, Which Was So
Incessant During The Night At The Mackenzie.
The shell and bones of the
turtle indicated its presence in the shady ponds fringed by drooping tea
trees.
Large holes in the banks immediately above the water, were
probably inhabited by water rats or lizards. A common carpet snake was
killed. Whenever we passed through open Vitex scrub, with its stiff loamy
soil, we were sure of meeting a great number of the conical constructions
of the white ant: they were from one to three feet high, very narrow, and
tapering to a sharp point.
April 24. - To-day we travelled along the river over an open country,
intersected by some gullies; the course of the river was, for about four
miles, from north to south, and, at that distance from our camp, was
joined by a river coming from the northward, which I now take the liberty
of naming the "Perry," after Captain Perry, Deputy Surveyor-General, who
has most kindly mapped my route from the rough plans sketched during the
journey. The Burdekin here comes from the westward, and made a large bend
round several mountains, composed of quartz porphyry, with a
sub-crystalline felspathic paste. The latitude was 19 degrees 1 minutes
(Unclear:)18.
April 25. - We travelled almost due west, about nine miles along the
river, our latitude being 19 degrees 1 minutes 3 seconds.
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