I Directed My Course To A Distant Mountain, Due North
From The Camp, And Travelled Seven Or Eight Miles Over A Large Plain,
Which Was Composed Of A Rich Dark Soil, And Clothed With A Great Variety
Of Excellent Grasses.
We saw many columns of dust raised by whirlwinds;
and again mistook them for the smoke of so many fires of the natives.
But
we soon observed that they moved in a certain direction, and that new
columns rose as those already formed drew off; and when we came nearer,
and passed between them, it seemed as if the giant spirits of the plain
were holding a stately corrobori around us. They originated on a patch of
ground divested of its vegetation by a late fire. There was a belt of
forest to the northward, and the current of the sea-breeze coming up the
valley of the river from N.N.W. seemed to eddy round the forest, and to
whirl the unsheltered loose earth into the air.
Towards the river, now to the west of our course, peaks, razor-backed
hills, and tents, similar to those we had observed when travelling at the
west side of the river on the 3rd December (and probably the same),
reappeared. To the east of the mountain, towards which we were
travelling, several bluff mountains appeared, which probably bounded the
valley of a river flowing to the northward, and disemboguing between the
Liverpool and Mount Morris Bay. For the last five miles of the stage, our
route lay through forest land; and we crossed two creeks going to the
east, and then came to rocky sandstone hills, with horizontal
stratification, at the foot of which we met with a rocky creek, in the
bed of which, after following it for a few miles, we found water. The
supply was small; but we enlarged it with the spade, and obtained a
sufficient supply for the night. A thunder-storm formed to the northward,
which drew off to the westward; but another to the north-east gave us a
fine shower, and added to the contents of our water-hole. A well-beaten
foot-path of the natives went down the creek to the south-east. My
latitude, according to an observation of Castor, was 12 degrees 11
minutes.
We saw the Torres Strait pigeon; a Wallooroo and a red kangaroo
(Osphranter Antilopinus, GOULD). The old camps of the natives, which we
passed in the forest, were strewed with the shells of goose eggs, which
showed what an important article these birds formed in the culinary
department of the natives; and, whilst their meat and eggs served them
for food, their feathers afforded them a protection against the flies
which swarmed round their bodies during the day.
The arborescent Vitex with ternate leaves, which I had first met with at
the Flying-Fox Creek of the Roper, was also observed here.
At this time we were all sadly distressed with boils, and with a prickly
heat; early lancing of the former saved much pain:
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 257 of 272
Words from 133243 to 133752
of 141354
