Brown Thought
That One Of Them Looked Like A Half-Caste, And, As They Had Called Us, As
Far As We Understood, "Whitefellows," I Felt Confirmed In My Supposition,
Either That A White Man Was With Them, Or Had Lived Among Them Very
Recently.
I returned to the creek, in order to find another water-hole
with water; but did not succeed, and had to encamp without it.
During the
night we heard the noise of a frog, "brrr, brrr;" probably a new species,
for we had never heard that croak before. It seemed, however, to frighten
Brown, who, like all blackfellows, is very timid after night-fall.
Yesterday we met with a new leguminous shrub. It belongs to the section
Cassia, and has a long pinnate leaf, the leaflets an inch long, and half
an inch broad. Its pods were about a foot long, half an inch broad; and
every seed was surrounded by a fleshy spongy tissue, which, when dry,
gave to the pod a slightly articulate appearance. The seeds, when young,
had an agreeable taste, and the tissue, when dry, was pleasantly
acidulous, and was eaten by some of my companions without any ill effect,
whilst others, with myself, were severely purged. To day I found the same
plant in form of a tree, about thirty feet high, with a short stem, and
long spreading shady branches.
CHAPTER IV
SWARMS OF COCKATOOS - ALLOWANCE OF FLOUR FURTHER REDUCED - NATIVE
FAMILY - THE MACKENZIE - COAL - NATIVES SPEAKING A DIFFERENT IDIOM - MOUNT
STEWART - BROWN AND MYSELF MISS THE WAY BACK TO THE CAMP - FIND OUR PARTY
AGAIN, ON THE FOURTH DAY - NEUMAN'S CREEK - ROPER'S PEAK - CALVERT'S
PEAK - GILBERT'S DOME - GREAT WANT OF WATER.
Jan. 1, 1845. - After a ride of about four miles down the creek, we came
to a deep hole of good water, that had been filled by the late
thunder-storms, the traces of which, however, had disappeared every where
else. I found a red Passion flower, with three-lobed leaves, the lobes
rounded: it was twining round the trunk of a gum tree, and rooted in a
light sandy alluvial soil. A new species of Bauhinia, with large white
blossoms, growing in small groves, or scattered in the scrub,
particularly near the creeks, was conspicuous for its elegance, and was
the greatest ornament of this part of the country. It is a tree about
twenty-five feet high, with long drooping branches; the foliage is of a
rich green colour, and affords a fine shade. A climbing Capparis, with
broad lanceolate leaves, had also large white showy blossoms; and a fine
specimen of this plant was seen growing in the fork of an old box tree,
about twelve or fifteen feet from the ground; it was in fruit, but
unfortunately was not yet ripe. There was also another species of the
same genus, with yellow blossoms, in other respects very similar in
appearance to the first. The white cedar was still abundant. When I
returned to the camp, I found my companions busily engaged in straining
the mud, which had remained in the water-hole after our horses and cattle
had drunk and rolled in it.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 51 of 272
Words from 26005 to 26533
of 141354
