We Travelled Along The Valley Of The River About Ten Miles, In A
West-Northerly Course; Our Latitude Of This
Day being 26 degrees 3
minutes 44 seconds Fine box and apple-tree flats were on both sides of
the
Creek, now deserving the appellation of a "River," and which I called
the "Dawson," in acknowledgment of the kind support I received from R.
Dawson, Esq., of Black Creek, Hunter's River. At the foot of the ridges
some fine lagoons were observed, as also several plains, with the soil
and the vegetation of the Downs, but bounded on the northward by
impenetrable Bricklow scrub. In a watercourse, meandering through this
scrub, sandstone cropped out, in which impressions of fossil plants were
noticed by me. It was interesting to observe how strictly the scrub kept
to the sandstone and to the stiff loam lying upon it, whilst the mild
black whinstone soil was without trees, but covered with luxuriant
grasses and herbs; and this fact struck me as remarkable, because, during
my travels in the Bunya country of Moreton Bay, I found it to be exactly
the reverse: the sandstone spurs of the range being there covered with an
open well grassed forest, whilst a dense vine brush extended over the
basaltic rock. The phenomenon is probably to be explained by the
capability of the different soils of retaining moisture, and, at the same
time, by taking into account the distance of the localities from the
seacoast. I called these plains "Calvert's Plains," after my companion,
Mr. Calvert.
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