The Country Was Again Most
Wretched, And At Night We Almost Dropped From Our Saddles With Fatigue.
Another Pigeon Was Divided Between Us, But Our Tea Was Gone.
Oppressed by
hunger, I swallowed the bones and the feet of the pigeon, to allay the
cravings of my stomach.
A sleeping lizard with a blunt tail and knobby
scales, fell into our hands, and was of course roasted and greedily
eaten. Brown now complained of increased pain in his feet, and lost all
courage. "We are lost, we are lost," was all he could say. All my words
and assurances, all my telling him that we might be starved for a day or
two, but that we should most certainly find our party again, could not do
more than appease his anxiety for a few moments. The next morning, the
21st, we proceeded, but kept a little more to the westward, and crossed a
fine openly timbered country; but all the creeks went either to the east
or to the north. At last, after a ride of about four miles, Brown
recognized the place where we had breakfasted on the 19th, when all his
gloom and anxiety disappeared at once. I then returned on my south-east
course, and arrived at the camp about one o'clock in the afternoon; my
long absence having caused the greatest anxiety amongst my companions. I
shall have to mention several other instances of the wonderful quickness
and accuracy with which Brown as well as Charley were able to recognize
localities which they had previously seen. The impressions on their
retina seem to be naturally more intense than on that of the European;
and their recollections are remarkably exact, even to the most minute
details. Trees peculiarly formed or grouped, broken branches, slight
clevations of the ground - in fact, a hundred things, which we should
remark only when paying great attention to a place - seem to form a kind
of Daguerreotype impression on their minds, every part of which is
readily recollected.
I rejoined my party at the creek which comes from Mount Stewart. The
natives had approached Mr. Gilbert when out shooting, with a singular,
but apparently friendly, noise: "Ach! Ach! Ach!" They had heard the cooce
of my blackfellow Charley, and thought Mr. Gilbert wanted them; but, as
he was alone, he thought it prudent to retire to the camp.
The thunder-storm, which we experienced on the night of the 19th, had
completely changed the aspect of the country round Mount Stewart. All the
melon-holes of the scrub, all the ponds along the creeks, all the
water-holes in the beds of the creeks, were full of water; the creek at
which we encamped, was running; the grass looked fresh and green; the
ground, previously rotten, was now boggy, and rendered travelling rather
difficult; but we were always at home, for we found water and grass
everywhere.
The days from the 17th to the 23rd were exceedingly hot, but, during the
early morning and the evening, the air was delightfully cool. Light
casterly and northerly winds stirred during the day. Cumuli passed from
the same quarters; and generally gathered during the afternoon, and
became very heavy. The thunder-storms veered round from the west by the
north to the eastward. The nights of the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd were bright
and cold, with heavy dew. On the morning of the 23rd we had misty, loose,
confluent clouds, travelling slowly from the north-east, with some drops
of rain. I was now convinced that the rainy season had set in near the
sea coast; for the clouds which came from that direction, had evidently
been charged with rain; but, in passing over a large tract of dry
country, they were exhausted of their moisture, and the north-easterly
winds were too weak to carry them quickly so far inland.
The whole country I had travelled over, is composed of sandstone, with
probably occasional outbreaks of igneous rocks, as indicated by the rich
black soil. The plains and creeks abound in fossil wood, changed into
iron-ore and silica. The soil is generally good, but some of the sandy
flats are rotten: and the ridges are covered with pebbles.
The trees, with the exception of the flooded-gum, are of stunted habit;
and scrub is here developed ad infinitum. A Grevillea (G. ceratophylla
R.Br.?) with pinnatifid leaves, a small tree from fifteen to twenty feet
high, and about four inches in diameter; a Melaleuca about the same size,
with stiff lanceolate leaves, about two inches long and half an inch
broad, and slightly foliaceous bark; and an Acacia with glaucous
bipinnate leaves, of the section of the brush Acacias of Moreton
Bay - grew on the sandy soil along the ridges; and a handsome Convolvulus
with pink flowers adorned the rich plain south-east of Mount Stewart. I
examined the wood of all the arborescent Proteaceae which I met with, and
observed in all of them, with the exception of Persoonia, the great
development of the medullary rays, as it exists in several species of
Casuarina.
On the 23rd, 24th, and 25th January, the party moved over the country
which I had reconnoitred, to a place about twenty-five miles north-west
from Mount Stewart's Creek, and about thirty-four miles from the
Mackenzie. In the vicinities of several of the camps, Charley found many
nests of the native bee, full of the sweetest and most aromatic honey we
had ever tasted. The wild Marjoram, which grows abundantly here, and
imparts its fragrance even to the air, seemed to be the principal source
from which the bee obtained its honey. We collected a considerable
quantity of the marjoram, and added it to our tea, with the double
intention, of improving its flavour, and of saving our stock; we also
used it frequently as a condiment in our soup.
To the westward of our camp of the 25th January, was a large hill, which
I called "West Hill;" and, to the north and north-east, several ridges
confined the large valley of our creek and its tributaries.
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