What Could
She Think; But That We Were Some Of Those Imaginary Beings, With Legends
Of Which The Wise Men Of Her People Frighten The Children Into Obedience,
And Whose Strange Forms And Stranger Doings Are The Favourite Topics Of
Conversation Amongst The Natives At Night When Seated Round Their Fires?
I observed a fine sienite on several spots; it is of a whitish colour,
and contains hornblende and mica in almost equal quantities; granite was
also seen, and both rocks probably belong to each other, the presence of
hornblende being local.
A very hard pudding-stone crops out about nine
miles down the river. From the ridges, hills were seen to the N.N.E. and
to the westward. Vitex scrub is met with in patches of small extent. A
white crane, and the whistling duck, were seen. Black ducks and teal were
most common, and Charley shot eight of them. On the banks of the more or
less dry water-holes grows an annual leguminous plant, which shoots up
into a simple stem, often to the height of twelve feet; its neck and root
are covered with a spongy tissue; its leaves are pinnate, a foot or more
in length, with small leaflets; it bears mottled yellow flowers, in
axillary racemes; and long rough, articulate pods, containing small,
bright, olive-green seeds. I first saw this plant at Limestone, near
Moreton Bay, and afterwards at the water-holes of Comet River. It was
extremely abundant in the bed of the Burdekin, and was last seen on the
west side of the gulf of Carpentaria; I could, however, easily
distinguish three species of this plant. [They belong probably to the
two genera, Aeschynomene and Sesbania.]
Last evening, clouds gathered in the west, but cleared off after sunset;
the night again cloudy, the forenoon equally so; in the afternoon the
clouds were dissipated by a north-east wind.
March 24. - We travelled about nine miles N. 60 degrees W. along the
river; a small creek joined from the westward. At night we had a heavy
thunder-storm from the S.W.
March 25. - Weather very hot; clouds formed during the afternoon. We
continued our journey along the river to lat. 21 degrees 3 minutes; the
river winds considerably. We passed several hills at the latter part of
the stage. I ascended one of them, on the right bank of the river, and
obtained an extensive view of the country, which has a very uniform
character. There were ridges and low ranges to the westward, one of which
stretched from N. by W. far to the westward. The hill on which I stood
was composed of limestone rock; it was flat-topped, with steep slopes at
each end.
In lat. about 21 degrees 6 minutes, we crossed a large creek, densely
lined with dropping tea trees, coming from the westward. It was here we
first met with Careya arborea (Roxb.), a small tree from fifteen to
twenty feet high, with elliptical leaves of soft texture, four inches
long, and two in breadth; its fruit was about two inches long, contained
many seeds, and resembled that of the Guava. Its leaves, however, had
neither the vernation nor the pellucid dots of Myrtaceous trees. At the
junction of the creek, a great number of small Corypha palms were
growing, and my companions observed the dead stems of some very high
ones, whose tops had been cut off by the natives, probably to obtain the
young shoot. We passed hills of baked sandstone, before reaching the
creek, and afterwards crossed a fine sandy flat, with poplar-gum. The
river has a broad bed, at times dividing into several channels, lined
with stately Melaleucas and flooded-gum, and again uniting into one deep
channel, with long reaches of water surrounded by Polygonums, and
overgrown with blue Nymphaeas, Damasoniums, and Utricularias, and
inhabited by large flights of ducks. Rock occasionally enters into the
bed of the river. The collateral lines of water-holes are rarely
interrupted, and the ridges appear to be open on both sides of the river.
March 26. - We travelled along the river to lat. 20 degrees 53 minutes 42
seconds. Its course is almost due north. Yesterday, being out duck
shooting, we came suddenly upon a camp of natives, who were not a little
frightened by the report of our guns: they followed our tracks, however,
with wailing cries, and afterwards all of them sat down on the rocky
banks of the river, when we returned to our camp. To-day we passed the
place of their encampment with our whole train, and it was remarkable
that they neither heard nor saw us until we were close to them, though we
had seen them from a great distance. All the young ones ran away.
Dismounting from my horse, I walked up to an old man who had remained,
and who was soon after rejoined by another man. We had a long
unintelligible conversation, for neither Brown nor Charley could make out
a single word of their language. They were much surprised by the
different appearance of Charley's black skin and my own. Phillips wished
to exchange his jacket for one of their opossum cloaks, so I desired him
to put it on the ground, and then taking the cloak and placing it near
the jacket, I pointed to Phillips, and, taking both articles up, handed
the cloak to Phillips and the jacket to our old friend, who perfectly
understood my meaning. After some time he expressed a wish to have the
cloak back, and to keep the jacket, with which we had dressed him; but I
gave him to understand that he might have his cloak, provided he returned
the jacket; which arrangement satisfied him. A basket (dilli), which I
examined, was made of a species of grass which, according to Charley, is
found only on the sea coast.
We saw a Tabiroo (Mycteria) and a rifle bird. The morning was cloudy, but
very hot.
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