The Rock Was
Primitive, Granite And Pegmatite In Several Varities, With A Few
Exceptions Of Anagenitic Formation.
Near the place of our first
encampment on the Lynd, in lat.
17 degrees 58 minutes, I observed a
sienite, to which the distribution of the hornblende in layers had given
the stratified appearance of gneiss. Another rock was composed of felspar
and large leaflets of white mica, or of quartz and white mica. The veins
which traversed these rocks were all of quartz, which, within the
pegmatite, enlarged into big masses and hills, particularly where
basaltic rock was near. Mr. Gilbert and Charley went down the creek to
find water and a practicable road, in case the country should prove
mountainous and rocky. I had a view from a small peak near our camp; the
country was full of ridges, but openly timbered, and I saw a low range to
the northward, trending from east to west.
May 24. - It was the Queen's birth-day, and we celebrated it with what - as
our only remaining luxury - we were accustomed to call a fat cake, made of
four pounds of flour and some suet, which we had saved for the express
purpose, and with a pot of sugared tea. We had for several months been
without sugar, with the exception of about ten pounds, which was reserved
for cases of illness and for festivals. So necessary does it appear to
human nature to interrupt the monotony of life by marked days, on which
we indulge in recollections of the past, or in meditations on the future,
that we all enjoyed those days as much, and even more, than when
surrounded with all the blessings of civilized society; although I am
free to admit, that fat-cake and sugared tea in prospectu might induce us
to watch with more eagerness for the approach of these days of feasting.
There were, besides, several other facts interesting to the psychologist,
which exhibited the influence of our solitary life, and the unity of our
purpose, on our minds.
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