Brown Had Found A Bar Across The River,
And, On Examination It Proved Perfectly Dry During Low Water, And Allowed
Us To Cross, After Having Brought Our Bullocks And Horses Down The Steep
Banks, Which, However, Was Not Effected Without Great Difficulty.
We had
most fortunately hit the very spot where such a crossing was possible.
Brown saw a great number of fine fish in the river, which he called
"Taylors." The natives had been here frequently:
The grass had been
recently burnt, and fish bones indicated this as one of their habitual
camping places. We could not, however, discover where they quenched their
thirst. I sent Charley forward in a north-west direction to look for
water. When we came out into the plains which stretched along both sides
of the river as far as the eye could reach, we saw smoke very near us on
the right. I went towards it, until I found that it rose on the opposite
side of the river we had just crossed; Brown, however, detected a pool of
slightly brackish water in a deep creek at a short distance from its
junction with the river. It was too boggy for our cattle to approach, but
it allowed us to quench our own thirst. We now re-entered the plains, and
followed the track of Charley, who soon returned with the pleasing
intelligence that he had found some fine water-holes. These were in the
bed of a creek, surrounded by a band of forest composed of box,
raspberry-jam trees, and the broad-leaved Terminalia, the fruit of which
was eaten by the black cockatoo.
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