When Ripe, The Pericarp Is
Very Mealy And Agreeable To Eat, And Would Be Wholesome, If It Were Not
So Extraordinarily Astringent.
We called this tree the "Nonda," from its
resemblance to a tree so called by the natives in the Moreton Bay
district.
I found the fruit in the dilli of the natives on the 21st June,
and afterwards most abundantly in the stomach of the emu. The tree was
very common in the belt of forest along the creek.
The wind, during the last two days, was southerly, south-westerly, and
westerly, freshening up during the afternoon. The forenoon was very hot:
the night clear, and rather cool towards morning. I observed many
shooting stars during the two last nights.
July 4. - We travelled seven miles in a south-west direction, to lat. 16
degrees 15 minutes 11 seconds, over an entirely flat country, covered
with a very open forest of box, of bloodwood, and of the stiff-leaved
Melaleuca, with the arborescent Grevillea already mentioned, and with a
species of Terminalia with winged fruit. In the more sandy tracts of
bloodwood forest, grew the Nonda, the Pandanus, and the apple-gum. The
shallow creek was surrounded by a scrub of various myrtaceous trees,
particularly Melaleucas. The creek afterwards divided into water-holes,
fringed with Stravadium, which, however, lower down gave way to dense
belts of Polygonum. The water was evidently slightly brackish; the first
actual sign of the vicinity of the sea. A young emu was killed with the
assistance of Spring; and a sheldrake was shot by Brown. Native
companions were very numerous, and were heard after sunset, all round our
camp. The stomach of the emu was full of a small plant resembling
chickweed, which grew round the water-holes.
The smoke of the natives' fires was seen to the south and south-west.
July 5. - We travelled over full twenty miles of country, although the
distance from camp to camp, in a straight line, did not exceed fourteen,
in a south by west direction; the latitude of our new camp was 16 degrees
27 minutes 26 seconds. After passing several miles of tea-tree forest,
intermixed with box, and alternating with belts of grassy forest land,
with bloodwood and Nonda, we entered upon a series of plains increasing
in size, and extending to the westward as far as the eye could reach, and
separated from each other by narrow strips of forest; they were
well-grassed, but the grasses were stiff. Tea-tree hollows extended along
the outskirts of the plains. In one of them, we saw Salicornia for the
first time, which led us to believe that the salt water was close at
hand. Having crossed the plains, we came to broad sheets of sand,
overgrown with low shrubby tea-trees, and a species of Hakea, which
always grows in the vicinity of salt water. The sands were encrusted with
salt, and here and there strewed with heaps of Cytherea shells. Beyond
the sands, we saw a dense green line of mangrove trees extending along a
salt water creek, which we headed, and in which Brown speared the first
salt water mullet. We then came to a fine salt water river, whose banks
were covered with an open well grassed forest; interrupted only by flat
scrubby sandy creeks, into which the tide entered through narrow
channels, and which are probably entirely inundated by the spring tides.
Not finding any fresh water along the river I went up one of the creeks,
and found fresh water-holes, not in its bed, but parallel to it, scarcely
a mile from the river. When crossing the plains, the whole horizon
appeared to be studded with smoke from the various fires of the natives;
and when we approached the river, we noticed many well beaten footpaths
of the natives, who are found generally in greater numbers and stronger
tribes near the sea coast, where the supply of food is always more
abundant and certain.
The first sight of the salt water of the gulf was hailed by all with
feelings of indescribable pleasure, and by none more than by myself;
although tinctured with regret at not having succeeded in bringing my
whole party to the end of what I was sanguine enough to think the most
difficult part of my journey. We had now discovered a line of
communication by land between the eastern coast of Australia, and the
gulf of Carpentaria: we had travelled along never failing, and, for the
greater part, running waters: and over an excellent country, available,
almost in its whole extent, for pastoral purposes. The length of time we
had been in the wilderness, had evidently made the greater portion of my
companions distrustful of my abilities to lead them through the journey;
and, in their melancholy conversations, the desponding expression, "We
shall never come to Port Essington," was too often overheard by me to be
pleasant. My readers will, therefore, readily understand why Brown's
joyous exclamation of "Salt Water!" was received by a loud hurrah from
the whole party; and why all the pains, and fatigues, and privations we
had endured, were, for the moment, forgotten, almost as completely as if
we had arrived at the end of the journey.
July 6. - remained in camp the whole of this day, to rest the poor
animals, which had been much fatigued by our last long stage. Charley
shot a duck (Malacorhynchus membranaceus); and he, Brown, and John
Murphy, went to the salt water to angle. My expectations, however, of
catching fish in the salt water, and of drying them, were sadly
disappointed. The whole amount of their day's work was, a small Silurus,
one mullet, and some small guard-fish.
The weather continued fine, the forenoon usually very hot, but the air
was cooled in the afternoon by a south-west breeze; the nights were clear
and rather cold.
When I left Moreton Bay, I had taken a spare set of horse-shoes with me
for every horse.
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