Whistling Ducks, In Close Flocks, Flew Generally Much
Higher, And With Great Rapidity.
No part of the country we had passed,
was so well provided with game as this; and of which we could have easily
obtained an abundance, had not our shot been all expended.
The cackling
of geese, the quacking of ducks, the sonorous note of the native
companion, and the noises of black and white cockatoos, and a great
variety of other birds, gave to the country, both night and day, an
extraordinary appearance of animation. We started two large native dogs,
from the small pool at which we encamped; a flock of kites indicated to
me the presence of a larger pool which I chose for our use; and here we
should have been tolerably comfortable, but for a large green-eyed
horse-fly, which was extremely troublesome to us, and which scarcely
allowed our poor animals to feed.
We had a heavy thunder-storm from the north-east, which, however, soon
passed off.
Nov. 29. - We travelled about twelve miles to the northward to lat. 12
degrees 26 minutes 41 seconds, over ironstone and baked sandstone ridges,
densely wooded and often scrubby. The first part of the stage was more
hilly, and intersected by a greater number of creeks, going down to west
and north-west, than the latter part, which was a sandy, level forest of
stringy-bark and Melaleuca gum. The little gooseberry-tree (Coniogeton
arborescens, D.C.) the leguminous Ironbark, a smooth, broad-leaved
Terminalia, Calythrix, and the apple-gum, were plentiful.
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