The Basalt Has Been Again Broken By Still
More Recent Fissures, Through Which Streams Of Lava Have Risen And
Expanded Over The Neighbouring Rock.
May 20.
- We moved our camp about eighteen miles N.N.W., to Separation
Creek, the latitude of which was 18 degrees 2 minutes 22 seconds.
John Murphy found Grevillea chrysodendron in blossom, the rich orange
colour of which excited general admiration. The stringy-bark tree, and
Tristania, were growing on the sandy soil, and the latter near
watercourses. Several native bustards (Otis Novae Hollandiae, GOULD.)
were shot, and I found their stomachs full of the seeds of Grewia, which
abounded in the open patches of forest ground. In crossing a plain we
observed, under the shade of a patch of narrow-leaved tea trees, four
bowers of the bowerbird, close together, as if one habitation was not
sufficient for the wanton bird to sport in; and on the dry swamps I
mentioned above, small companies of native companions were walking around
us at some distance, but rose with their sonorous cu-r-r-r-ring cry,
whenever Brown tried to approach them. [The natives of Argyle call the
cry of the native companion, Ku-ru-duc Ku-ru-duc; the natives of
Port Essington call the bird Ororr. - NOTE BY CAPT. KING]
May 21. - I went with Brown to reconnoitre the course of the creek, and to
ascertain whether it flowed to the westward. We soon found, however, that
it turned to the north and north-east, and that it was still an eastern
water.
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