- We Travelled About Twelve Miles N. W. 6 Degrees W. To Lat.
16
degrees 3 minutes 11 seconds, and encamped at a swamp or sedgy lagoon,
without any apparent outlet; near which a great number of eagles, kites,
and crows were feasting on the remains of a black Ibis.
We passed a very
long lagoon, and, in the latter part of our stage, the country had much
improved, both in the increased extent of its forest land, and in the
density and richness of its grass.
June. 23. - We travelled eight or nine miles in a W. N. W. direction to
latitude 16 degrees 0 minutes 26 seconds, over many Bauhinia plains with
the Bauhinias in full blossom. The stiff soil of these plains was here
and there marked by very regular pentagonal, hexagonal, and heptagonal
cracks, and, as these cracks retain the moisture of occasional rains
better than the intervening space, they were fringed with young grass,
which showed these mathematical figures very distinctly. We passed a
great number of dry swamps or swampy water-holes; sometimes however
containing a little water. They were surrounded by the Mangrove myrtle
(Stravadium), which was mentioned as growing at the lower Lynd. The
bottom of the dry swamps was covered with a couch grass, which, like all
the other grasses, was partly withered.
Bustards were numerous, and the Harlequin pigeon was seen in large
flocks. Wallabies abounded both in the high grass of the broken country
near the river, and in the brush.
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