We Heard Some Subdued Cooees, Not Very Far From Our Camp, Which I Thought
Might Originate From Natives Returning Late From Their Excursions, And
Whose Attention Had Been Attracted By Our Fires.
I discharged a gun to
make them aware of our presence; after which we heard no more of them.
June 22. - We travelled about twelve miles N. W. 6 degrees W. to lat. 16
degrees 3 minutes 11 seconds, and encamped at a swamp or sedgy lagoon,
without any apparent outlet; near which a great number of eagles, kites,
and crows were feasting on the remains of a black Ibis. We passed a very
long lagoon, and, in the latter part of our stage, the country had much
improved, both in the increased extent of its forest land, and in the
density and richness of its grass.
June. 23. - We travelled eight or nine miles in a W. N. W. direction to
latitude 16 degrees 0 minutes 26 seconds, over many Bauhinia plains with
the Bauhinias in full blossom. The stiff soil of these plains was here
and there marked by very regular pentagonal, hexagonal, and heptagonal
cracks, and, as these cracks retain the moisture of occasional rains
better than the intervening space, they were fringed with young grass,
which showed these mathematical figures very distinctly. We passed a
great number of dry swamps or swampy water-holes; sometimes however
containing a little water. They were surrounded by the Mangrove myrtle
(Stravadium), which was mentioned as growing at the lower Lynd. The
bottom of the dry swamps was covered with a couch grass, which, like all
the other grasses, was partly withered.
Bustards were numerous, and the Harlequin pigeon was seen in large
flocks. Wallabies abounded both in the high grass of the broken country
near the river, and in the brush. Mr. Roper shot one, the hind quarters
of which weighed 15 1/2 lbs.: it was of a light grey colour, and was like
those we had seen at Separation Creek. Charley and Brown got seventeen
ducks, on one of the sedgy lagoons.
I visited the bed of the river: its banks were covered with a rather open
vine brush. Palm trees became numerous, and grew forty or fifty feet
high, with a thick trunk swelling in the middle, and tapering upwards and
downwards. Sarcocephalus, the clustered fig-tree, and the drooping
tea-tree, were also present as usual. The bed of the river, an immense
sheet of sand, was full a mile and a half broad, but the stream itself
did not exceed thirty yards in width.
During the night we had again a few drops of rain.
June 24. - We continued our journey about nine miles west by north to
latitude 15 degrees 59 minutes 30 seconds, over a rather broken country
alternating with Bauhinia plains and a well-grassed forest. The banks of
a large lagoon, on which several palm trees grew, were covered with heaps
of mussel-shells. Swarms of sheldrakes were perching in the trees, and,
as we approached, they rose with a loud noise, flying up and down the
lagoon, and circling in the air around us. A chain of water-holes,
fringed with Mangrove myrtle, changed, farther to the westward, into a
creek, which had no connection with the river, but was probably one of
the heads of the Nassau. We crossed it, and encamped on a water-hole
covered with Nymphaeas, about a mile from the river, whose brushy banks
would have prevented us from approaching it, had we wished to do so.
Though the easterly winds still prevailed, a slight north-west breeze was
very distinctly felt, from about 11 o'clock a.m.
June 25. - We travelled about ten miles N.N.W. to latitude 15 degrees 51
minutes 26 seconds, but did not follow the river, which made large
windings to the northward. It was very broad where Brown saw it last,
and, by his account, the brush was almost entirely composed of palm
trees. He saw a little boat with a fine Cymbium shell floating on the
water. Our road led us over a well grassed forest land, and several
creeks, which, although rising near the river, appeared to have no
communication with it. Some plains of considerable size were between the
river and our line of march; they were well grassed, but full of
melon-holes, and rose slightly towards the river, forming a remarkable
water-shed, perhaps, between the Nassau and the Mitchell. As we
approached the river, we entered into a flat covered with stunted box,
and intersected by numerous irregular water-courses. The box was
succeeded by a Phyllanthus scrub, through which we pushed, and then came
to a broad creek, filled with fine water, but not running, although high
water-marks on the drooping tea-trees proved that it was occasionally
flooded. We did not understand, nor could we ascertain, in what relation
this singular country and the creek stood to the river, of which nothing
was to be seen from the right bank of the creek.
The scrub, and the high grass along the creek, were swarming with white
flanked wallabies, three of which Brown and Charley succeeded in
shooting; and these, with a common grey kangaroo caught by Spring, and
five ducks shot by Brown, provided our larder with a fine supply of game.
When I first came on the Lynd, I supposed that it flowed either
independently to the head of the gulf, or that it was the tributary of a
river which collected the waters of the York Peninsula, and carried them
in a south-west or south-south-west course to the head of the gulf of
Carpentaria. Such a course would have corresponded to that of the
Burdekin at the eastern side, and the supposition was tolerably warranted
by the peculiar conformation of the gulf. I expected, therefore, at every
stage down the Lynd, at every bend to the westward, that it would keep
that course.
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