Among The New And Interesting Scrubs And Trees Which We Met With At
Almost Every Step, I Shall Only Mention
A small Grevillea, from one to
two feet in height, with pubescent pinnatifid leaves, and a simple or
compound thyrsus
Of scarlet flowers; Cochlospermum gossypium, the native
cotton tree of Port Essington, whose bright showy yellow blossoms and
large capsules full of silky cotton, attracted our attention; its leaves
are deciduous, and the trees were entirely leafless; a fine species of
Calytrix on the rocks, and two of Loranthus on the drooping tea tree, the
drooping foliage of which one of them imitated, whilst the other belonged
to the group I mentioned as found at the Suttor, with its flowers
inserted on a leafy bract.
Exocarpus latifolius is so different from E. cupressiformis, in its
foliage and aspect, that I did not suspect their near relation, until I
found blossom and fruit: the ripe kernel as well as its yellow succulent
leaf-stalk have a very agreeable taste; a leguminous shrub, about five or
six feet high, with purple blossoms gathered into terminal oblong heads;
this would be an ornament to our gardens. Along the river we discovered a
large tree, about forty or fifty feet in height, with rather singularly
disposed horizontal branches and rich dark green foliage; its leaves were
oblong acute, and frequently a foot long; its flowers formed dense heads,
which grew into a fleshy body marked with the arcoles of every flower. It
is either Sarcocephalus or Zuccarinia, or nearly allied to them. The tree
has never been seen on easterly waters, but it was the invariable
companion of all the larger freshwater rivers round the gulf. A fine
species of Gomphrena was found in the sandy bed of the river. A species
of Terminalia, a fine shady tree, with spreading branches and broad
elliptical leaves, grew along the sandy creeks; and another smaller one
with Samara fruit preferred the rocky slopes. Both of these, and a third
species growing on the west side of the gulph, which I shall have to
mention hereafter, supplied us with fine eatable gum, and a fourth
species, with smooth leaves, had an eatable fruit of a purple colour.
The view I obtained from one of the hills near our yesterday's camp was
very characteristic. The country was broken by low ranges of various
extent, formed by exceedingly rocky hills and peaks, which lifted their
rugged crests above the open forest that covered their slopes. Heaps of
rocks with clusters of trees, particularly the smooth-leaved fig tree,
the rose-coloured Sterculia, Exocarpus latifolius, were scattered over
the slopes, or grew on the summits, to which they gave the resemblance of
the lifted crest of an irritated cockatoo, particularly when huge
fantastic blocks were striking out between the vegetation. As we
travelled along, ranges of hills of this character appeared one after
another; to which wallums and wallabies fled for security as we scared
them from the river's side; the rose-breasted cockatoo (Cocatua Eos,
GOULD.) visited the patches of fresh burnt grass, in large flocks;
bustards were numerous on the small flats between basaltic hillocks,
where they fed on the ripe fruit of Grewia.
On the evening of the 27th May, we killed one of our bullocks, which had
suffered more than any of the others by the journey, in consequence of
his having carried our ammunition, which had decreased comparatively
little, and the great weight of which had raised large lumps on his ribs,
which had formed into ulcers. We were very disagreeably disappointed in
not finding sufficient fat to fry the liver, which was our favourite
dish; even the fat of the marrow had disappeared and had left a watery
tissue, which, when grilled for some time, turned into a yellow
substance, having the taste of the fried yolk of an egg. We dried our
meat on the 28th, 29th, and 30th. I took a set of lunar sights, and
calculated my longitude 143 degrees 30 minutes.
May 31. - We had scarcely left, our camp, when swarms of crows and kites
(Milvus isiurus) took possession of it, after having given us a fair
fight during the previous days, whilst we were drying the meat. Their
boldness was indeed remarkable, and if the natives had as much, we should
soon have had to quit our camp. Proceeding, we travelled over a broken
and very stony country, with a stiff soil, but mixed with so much sand
that even the Severn tree grew well. There was another small tree, the
branches of which were thickly covered with bright green leaves; it had
round inferior fruit, about half an inch in diameter, which was full of
seeds: when ripe, it was slightly pulpy and acidulous, and reminded me of
the taste of the coarse German rye bread. In consequence of this
resemblance, we called this little tree the Bread tree of the Lynd. I ate
handfulls of this fruit without the slightest inconvenience. A species of
Pittosporum, and several Acacias, Pandanus, and the leguminous Ironbark,
were scattered through an open forest of Ironbark and lanceolate box. I
observed here a very ornamental little tree, with drooping branches and
linear lanceolate drooping leaves three inches long; it very much
resembled a species of Capparis that I had seen at the Isaacs. Its
blossoms are very small, and the calyx and corolla have each five
divisions; the stamens are opposite the petals; it bore a fruit like a
small apple, with a hard outside, but pulpy and many seeded within, like
Capparis; the calyx was attached to the base of the fruit.
The rock was still granitic, with small outbreaks of basalt; the leaflets
of white mica were visible everywhere in the soil and in the large
ant-hills, whose building materials were derived from the decomposed
felspar. The bed of the river was frequently rocky, and very broad, with
low banks and no water. The highest flood-marks we observed were from six
to eight feet above the level of the bed; these marks were on the trunks
of Casuarinas, Melaleucas, and flooded-gum, which grew along the channel.
The country in general had a winterly appearance; and the grass round the
camp was dry, but I observed the fine grass of the Isaacs, and many
varieties which grow on the Suttor and Burdekin, which will yield an
excellent feed in the proper season; and, even at the present, neither
our bullocks nor horses were starving.
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