But, After That, They Receded From The River, And The
Country Became Comparatively Level.
To this place I brought forward my
party on the 4th June, and again descended into the valley of the river,
and encamped near a fine pool of water in its sandy bed, in latitude 17
degrees 34 minutes 17 seconds.
Here, last night, I met a family of
natives who had just commenced their supper; but, seeing us, they ran
away and left their things, without even making an attempt to frighten
us. Upon examining their camp, I found their koolimans, (vessels to keep
water) full of bee bread, of which I partook, leaving for payment some
spare nose rings of our bullocks. In their dillies I found the fleshy
roots of a bean, which grows in a sandy soil, and has solitary yellow
blossoms; the tuber of a vine, which has palmate leaves; a bitter potato,
probably belonging to a water-plant; a fine specimen of rock-crystal; and
a large cymbium (a sea shell), besides other trifles common to almost all
the natives we had seen. Their koolimans were very large, almost like
small boats, and were made of the inner layer of the bark of the
stringy-bark tree. There was no animal food in the camp.
The whole extent of the mountainous country passed in our two last
stages, was of porphyry, with crystals of quartz and felspar in a grey
paste; on both sides of it, the rock was granite and pegmatite; and, at
the north-west side of the gorge, I observed talc-schist in the bed of
the river.
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