Favour, and no one hesitated to
drink the liquid fat, after having finished his meat. This relish
continued to increase as our bullocks became poorer; and we became as
eager to examine the condition of a slaughtered beast, as the natives,
whose practice in that respect we had formerly ridiculed.
As I had made a set of lunar observations at Skull camp, which I wished
to calculate, I sent Mr. Roper up the north branch of the Isaacs to look
for water; and, on his return, he imparted the agreeable intelligence,
that he had found fine holes of water at about nine or ten miles distant,
and that the country was still more open, and abounded with game,
particularly emus.
CHAPTER VI
HEADS OF THE ISAACS - THE SUTTOR - FLINT-ROCK - INDICATIONS OF WATER - DINNER
OF THE NATIVES APPROPRIATED BY US - EASTER SUNDAY - ALARM OF AN OLD
WOMAN - NATIVES SPEAKING A LANGUAGE ENTIRELY UNKNOWN TO CHARLEY AND
BROWN - A BARTER WITH THEM - MOUNT M'CONNEL.
I was detained at this place from the 1st to the 4th March, from a severe
attack of lumbago, which I had brought on by incautiously and, perhaps,
unnecessarily exposing myself to the weather, in my botanical and other
pursuits. On the 4th March. I had sufficiently recovered to mount my
horse and accompany my party to Roper's water-holes. Basalt cropped out
on the plains; the slight ridges of "devil-devil" land are covered with
quartz pebbles, and the hills and bed of the river, are of sandstone
formation.
A yellow, and a pink Hibiscus, were frequent along the river.
My calculations gave the longitude of 148 degrees 56 minutes for Skull
Creek; my bearings however make it more to the westward; its latitude was
supposed to be 21 degrees 42 minutes: the cloudy nights prevented my
taking any observation.
March 5. - I sent Mr. Gilbert and Charley up the river, which, according
to Mr. Roper's account, came through a narrow mountain gully, the passage
of which was very much obstructed by tea-trees. They passed the mountain
gorge, and, in about eight miles north, came to the heads of the Isaacs,
and to those of another system of waters, which collected in a creek that
flowed considerably to the westward. The range through which the Isaacs
passes is composed of sandstone, and strikes from north-west to
south-east. In its rocky caves, wallabies, with long smooth tails, had
been seen by Brown; they were quite new to him, and, as he expressed
himself, "looked more like monkeys than like wallabies." Mr. Gilbert and
Charley came on two flocks of emus, and killed two young ones; and
Charley and John Murphy hunted down another; Charley fell, however, with
his horse, and broke a double-barrelled gun, which was a very serious
loss to us, and the more so, as he had had the misfortune to break a
single-barrelled one before this.
