Muscle-Shells
Strewed In Every Direction, And Other Appearances, Indicated That, During
The Wet Season, The Whole Country Must Be Very Swampy.
The course of the
creek was to the N. N. W., and it is joined by watercourses from the
right and left; all now quite dry.
After having followed the creek for
about twelve miles, until sunset, without coming to the end of the scrub
through which it trended, we were compelled to retrace our steps; in
attempting which my companion, Charley, lost the track, but my good
little horse, Jim Crow, guided us to the camp, which we reached about
eleven o'clock. Mr. Calvert and Brown had not yet returned; although the
report of their guns had been heard several times. The night was
extremely cold, notwithstanding we were encamped under the shelter of
trees: and it was therefore evident that we were at a considerable
elevation above the level of the sea. The Box-tree of Jimba-flats, the
Bricklow - in short, the whole vegetation of the scrubby country, west of
Darling Downs, were still around us; and the Moreton Bay ash (a species
of Eucalyptus) - which I had met with, throughout the Moreton Bay
district, from the sea coast of the Nynga Nyngas to Darling Downs - was
here also very plentiful.
Dec. 16. - Our cattle and our horses, with the exception of those we had
used the night before, had strayed in search of water; but Charley found
them on the sow-thistle plains, beyond our last camp. Messrs. Calvert,
Murphy, and Brown, came in early this morning; they had lost their way in
the dark, in consequence of remaining too long at the water-hole. They
informed me that they had passed the night on an open piece of forest
ground along a creek. This intelligence induced me to examine the
locality: I therefore went with Brown, and found the creek, with a deep
sandy, but dry bed, full of reeds; its direction being from south by west
to north by east. I followed it up about eight miles, when the scrub
receded from its left bank, and a fine open extensive flat stretched to
the westward. I looked into the Casuarina thickets which occasionally
fringed its bank, in search of water; but found none. I was frequently on
the point of returning, but, induced by the presence of reeds, continued
the search, until the scrub again approached the right side of the creek;
and, in one of those chains of ponds which almost invariably exist at the
outside of these scrubs, a small pool of water was found. This gave me
fresh confidence, and I was eagerly examining the creek, when Brown
exclaimed, "Plenty of water, sir! plenty of water!" and a magnificent
lagoon, surrounded by a rich belt of reeds, lay before us. The natives
must have been at this spot some time before, and have burned the grass;
as the earth was now covered with a delicate verdure. The country
appeared flat, and was so openly timbered with fine flooded gum-trees,
that we could see for a considerable distance; a circumstance very
favourable to us, in case of the natives proving hostile.
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