To The East, However, The
View Was More Cheering; For The Hills Are More Open, And The Vegetation
Composed Of The Silver-Leaved And Narrow-Leaved Ironbark Trees And An
Open Vitex Scrub.
Several rocky gullies were passed, that were full of
palm trees.
The valley of Palm-tree Creek extends about nineteen miles
from west to east The ranges which bound it to the south, I called
"Lynd's Range," after my friend R. Lynd, Esq. Gilbert's Range bounds it
to the northward: Middle Range separates the creek from the Dawson up to
their junction. Several large swamps are within the valley; one of which,
the small lake which first broke upon my view, received the name of
"Roper's Lake," after one of my companions.
Nov. 17. - We went about nine miles up the valley, on a south branch of
Palm-tree Creek, which derives its waters from Lynd's Range. The fine
water-hole which I selected for our camp, was not only shaded by stately
Coryphas and flooded gums, but the drooping Callistemon, the creek
Melaleuca, and the Casuarina, gave to it the character of the rivers and
creeks of the Moreton Bay district. It changed, however, into a shallow
waterless channel, communicating with one of the large swamps which
generally extend along the base of the hills. I rode up Lynd's Range,
passing plains similar to those I have before mentioned, composed of
black soil intermingled with fossil wood and decomposed sandstone, and
densely covered with Burr, (a composite plant) and Verbena, and scattered
tufts either of Bricklow, or of Coxen's Acacia, or of the bright green
Fusanus, or of the darker verdure of Bauhinia, with here and there a
solitary tree of a rich dark-green hue, from forty to fifty feet in
height. From the summit I had a fine view down the valley of the Dawson,
which was bounded on both sides by ranges. A high distant mountain was
seen about N.N.E. from Lynd's Range, at the left side of the Dawson.
The water-holes abounded with jew-fish and eels; of the latter we
obtained a good supply, and dried two of them, which kept very well. Two
species of Limnaea, the one of narrow lengthened form, the other shorter
and broader; a species of Paludina, and Cyclas and Unios, were frequent.
The jew-fish has the same distoma in its swimming bladder, which I
observed in specimens caught in the Severn River to the southward of
Moreton Bay: on examining the intestines of this fish, they were full of
the shells of Limnaea and Cyclas. Large specimens of helix were frequent
on the Vervain Plains, but they were only dead shells. The fat-hen
(Atriplex) and the sow-thistle (Sonchus) grew abundantly on the reedy
flats at the upper end of the creek; Grewia, a prostrate Myoporum, and a
bean with yellow blossoms, were frequent all over the valley. Atriplex
forms, when young, as we gratefully experienced, an excellent vegetable,
as do also the young shoots of Sonchus.
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