An Ironbark Tree, With Greyish
Fissured Bark And Pale-Green Foliage, Grows Here, And Sterculia
Heterophylla Is Pretty Frequent Amongst The Box And Flooded-Gum, On The
Rising Ground Between The Two Creeks.
Farther on, the country opened, the
scrub receded; Ironbark ridges here and there, with spotted gum, with
dog-wood (Jacksonia) on a sandy soil, covered with flint pebbles,
diversified the sameness.
The grass was beautiful, but the tufts distant;
the Ironbark forest was sometimes interspersed with clusters of Acacias;
sometimes the Ironbark trees were small and formed thickets. Towards the
end of the stage, the country became again entirely flat, without any
indication of drainage, and we were in manifest danger of being without
water. At last, a solitary lagoon was discovered, about 30 yards in
diameter, of little depth, but with one large flooded gum-tree, marked,
by a piece of bark stripped off, as the former resting-place of a native;
the forest oak is abundant. Here I first met with Hakea lorea, R. Br.,
with long terete drooping leaves, every leaf one and a-half to two feet
long - a small tree 18 - 24 minutes high - and with Grevillea mimosoides, R.
Br., also a small tree, with very long riband-like leaves of a silvery
grey. We did not see any kangaroos, but got a kangaroo rat and a
bandicoot.
Oct. 11. - Travelling north-west we came to a Cypress-pine thicket, which
formed the outside of a Bricklow scrub. This scrub was, at first,
unusually open, and I thought that it would be of little extent; I was,
however, very much mistaken: the Bricklow Acacia, Casuarinas and a
stunted tea-tree, formed so impervious a thicket, that the bullocks, in
forcing their way through it, tore the flour-bags, upset their loads,
broke their straps, and severely tried the patience of my companions, who
were almost continually occupied with reloading one or other of the
restless brutes. Having travelled five miles into it, and finding no
prospect of its termination, I resolved upon returning to our last camp,
which, however, I was not enabled to effect, without experiencing great
difficulty, delay, and loss; and it was not until the expiration of two
days, that we retraced our steps, and reached the lagoon which we had
left on the 11th. We had lost about 143 pounds of flour; Mr. Gilbert lost
his tent, and injured the stock of his gun. The same night, rain set in,
which lasted the whole of the next day: it came in heavy showers, with
thunder-storms, from the north and north-west, and rendered the ground
extremely boggy, and made us apprehensive of being inundated, for the
lagoon was rapidly rising: our tent was a perfect puddle, and the horses
and cattle were scarcely able to walk.
Within the scrub there was a slight elevation, in which sandstone cropped
out: it was covered with cypress-pine, and an Acacia, different from the
Bricklow. The Bottle-tree (Sterculia, remarkable for an enlargement of
the stem, about three feet above the ground,) was observed within the
scrub: the white Vitex (?) and Geigera, SCHOTT., a small tree, with
aromatic linear-lanceolate leaves, grew at its outside, and in small
groves scattered through the open forest. Fusanus, a small tree with
pinnate leaves, and Buttneria, a small shrub, were also found in these
groves.
Many pigeons were seen; the black cockatoo of Leach (Calyptorhynchus
Leachii) was shot; we passed several nests of the brush-turkey (Talegalla
Lathami, GOULD). Charley got a probably new species of bandicoot, with
longer ears than the common one, and with white paws. We distinguished,
during the rain, three different frogs, which made a very inharmonious
concert. The succinea-like shells were very abundant in the moist grass;
and a limnaea in the lagoon seemed to me to be a species different from
those I had observed in the Moreton Bay district, The thermometer at
sunset 62 degrees (in the water 68 degrees); at sunrise 52 degrees (in
the water 62 degrees).
On the 15th October, the wind changed during the afternoon to the
westward, and cleared the sky, and dried the ground very rapidly.
Oct. 17. - The ground was too heavy and boggy to permit us to start
yesterday; besides, three horses were absent, and could not be found.
Last night, Mr. Roper brought in three ducks and a pigeon, and was
joyfully welcomed by all hands. Charley had been insolent several times,
when I sent him out after the cattle, and, this morning, he even
threatened to shoot Mr. Gilbert. I immediately dismissed him from our
service, and took from him all the things which he held on condition of
stopping with us. The wind continued from the west and south-west.
Oct. 18. - Towards evening Charley came and begged my pardon. I told him
that he had particularly offended Mr. Gilbert, and that I could not think
of allowing him to stay, if Mr. Gilbert had the slightest objection to
it: he, therefore, addressed himself to Mr. Gilbert, and, with his
consent, Charley entered again into our service. John Murphy and Caleb,
the American negro, went to a creek, which Mr. Hodgson had first seen,
when out on a RECONNOISSANCE to the northward, in order to get some game.
John had been there twice before, and it was not four miles distant:
they, however, did not return, and, at nine o'clock at night, we heard
firing to the north-east. We answered by a similar signal, but they did
not come in. I sent Mr. Hodgson and Charley to bring them back. If they
had simply given the bridle to their horses, they would have brought them
back without delay; but probably both got bewildered.
The latitude of this lagoon, which I called Kent's Lagoon, after F. Kent,
Esq., is 26 degrees 42 minutes 30 seconds. We tried to obtain opossums,
during the clear moonlight night, but only caught the common rabbit-rat.
Our horses go right into the scrub, to get rid of the little flies, which
torment them.
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