In Passing The Foot Of The Peaks, We Found A Species Of Grewia (Dwarf
Roorajong) Covered With Ripe Fruit; The Fruit Is Dry, But The Stringy
Tissue Which Covers The Seed, Contains A Slightly Sweet And Acidulous
Substance Of A Very Agreeable Taste.
The fig-tree with a rough leaf, had
plenty of fruit, but not yet ripe.
Erythrina was both in blossom and in
seed.
Sending Brown back to conduct our party to the water-holes we had found,
and leaving the creek, which turned to the eastward, I continued my ride
to the northward. I passed some gentle well-grassed slopes of
narrow-leaved Ironbark and spotted gum; and also several basaltic ridges,
which head out into small plains gently sloping to the east and
north-east. They are formed of a rich black soil, and generally a shallow
creek meanders through them: sandstone ridges formed their boundary lower
down, where, at their foot, water-holes generally existed, either with a
constant supply of water, or readily filled by thunder-showers. The
basaltic ridges, as well as the plains, were covered with a fine crop of
dry grass; but the sandstone ridges were frequently scrubby. The
difference between the sandstone country and the basaltic plains and
ridges, is very striking in respect to the quantity of water they
contain: in the latter, rain is immediately absorbed by the cracked
porous soil, which requires an immense quantity of moisture before it
allows any drainage; whereas the sandstone forms steeper slopes, and does
not absorb the rain so quickly, so that the water runs down the slopes,
and collects in holes at the foot of the hills parallel to the creeks.
Scrubs are frequent round the low rises of sandstone; and, where the
country is level, and the soil loamy, the hollows are often filled with
water by the thunder-storms. The moist character of this description of
country is probably the cause of the vegetation being more dense than it
is in the rich black soil of the plains; in which latter, the seeds of
the grasses and herbs lie dormant, until the first rain falls, when they
instantly germinate and cover the plain with their rapid and luxuriant
growth, as if by enchantment; but which, from its nature, is incapable of
maintaining the growth of scrubs and trees.
Feb. 3. - The dew was heavy through the night; and, in the morning, loose
rainy clouds gathered from the east and north-east, which, however,
disappeared about eleven o'clock. Charley went back to the camp, to bring
it on, and I continued to reconnoitre to the north-west. After passing a
sandstone ridge, I came to a creek, which went to the north-west, and
which was supplied with water by the late thunder-showers. It was bounded
on both sides by sandstone ridges, whose summits were covered with scrub
and Acacia thickets; and by grassy slopes and flats bearing narrow-leaved
Ironbark and Bastard-box. This would be a most beautiful country, if it
contained a constant supply of water.
I observed on the ridges an Acacia, a small tree, from thirty to forty
feet high, and from six to nine inches in diameter, and easily
distinguished by its peculiar rough frizzled bark, similar to that of the
Casuarina found at the ranges of the Robinson. It has a dark
sweet-scented heartwood, like that of the Bricklow and the Myal and other
Acacias, which I had previously met with. The creek turned to the north
and north-east, into a plain, and joined a larger creek which came in
from the right at about south-west. Near their junction, a very
conspicuous peak was observed, with several small water-holes with water
at its foot. I then returned to the spot to which Charley had been
ordered to conduct the camp; but, as the party had not arrived, I feared
that some accident might have happened, and therefore rode towards the
water-holes from which Brown had gone back to the camp. I found the
detention caused by the absence of the horses, which had strayed to the
other side of the range.
Feb. 6. - Charley rode my horse after the missing ones, and returned with
them about one o'clock to the camp; and then we proceeded about six miles
due north, in the direction of a fine mountain of imposing character -
which I called "Phillips's Mountain," after one of my companions - and
encamped in sight of Calvert's and Scott's Peaks, the former of which
bore S. 22 degrees W., and the latter S. 7 degrees E. Our latitude was 22
degrees 43 minutes.
Acacia farnesiana grew in low shrubs along the plains, stretching its
flexible branches over the ground; Mimosa terminalis (the sensitive
plant) was very plentiful, and more erect than usual; a species of
Verbena, with grey pubescent leaf and stem, was also abundant. The night
breeze had been exceedingly strong during the last four days. At the camp
of the 4th of February my companions shot twenty-one pigeons (Geophaps
scripta), and five cockatoos; a welcome addition to our scanty meals. For
a considerable time previous, I had reduced our allowance of flour to
three pounds; but now, considering that we were still so far to the
eastward, it was, by general consent of my companions, again reduced to a
pound and a-half per diem for the six, of which a damper mixed up with
fat was made every day, as soon as we reached our encampment.
Feb. 6. - I brought my camp forward about six miles farther to the
north-by-east, to the water-holes I had found at the foot of the
sandstone ridges; and, after having settled my camp, I went with my two
Blackfellows in search of more water. About a mile and a-half north from
the camp we came to an isolated peak, which I ascended, and from its
summit enjoyed the finest view of the Peak Range I had yet seen.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 37 of 139
Words from 36534 to 37538
of 141354
