We again enjoyed here the young shoots of the Corypha palm.
August 20. - We crossed Beames's brook without difficulty, and travelled
about two miles north-west, over a plain, when we came to a river with a
broad sandy bed and steep banks, overgrown with large drooping tea-trees.
Its stream was five or six yards broad and very shallow. Parallel lines
of deep lagoons covered with Nymphaeas and Villarsias were on its west
side. The bergue between the river and the lagoons was covered with
bloodwood and leguminous Ironbark; and fine box flats were beyond the
lagoons.
I called this river the "Nicholson," after Dr. William Alleyne Nicholson,
of Bristol, whose generous friendship had not only enabled me to devote
my time to the study of the natural sciences, but to come out to
Australia. The longitude of the Nicholson was 138 degrees 55 minutes
(approx.)
After passing the box flats along-the river, we entered into a country
covered with thickets and scrub, rarely interrupted by small patches of
open forest, and travelled about fourteen miles north-west from the
river, when the setting sun compelled us to encamp, without having been
able to find water. Just on entering the scrub, we saw four emus walking
gravely through a thicket of the little Severn tree, picking its bitter
fruit, and throwing occasionally a wondering but distrustful glance at
our approaching train.
