On The Banks Of Hodgson's Creek, Grows A Species Of Dampiera, With Many
Blue Flowers, Which Deserves The Name Of
"D. floribunda;" here also were
Leptospermum; Persoonia with lanceolate pubescent leaf; Jacksonia
(Dogwood); the cypress-pine with a light amber-
Coloured resin (Charley
brought me fine claret-coloured resin, and I should not be surprised to
find that it belongs to a different species of Callitris); an Acacia with
glaucous lanceolate one-inch-long phyllodia; and a Daviesia; another
Acacia with glaucous bipinnate leaves; a white Scaevola, Anthericum, and
a little Sida, with very showy blossoms. Spotted-gum and Ironbark formed
the forest; farther on, flooded-gum.
Pigeons, mutton-birds (Struthidia), are frequent, and provided us with
several messes; iguanas are considered great delicacies; several black
kangaroos were scen to day.
The weather very fine, but hot; the wind westerly; thermometer at sunset
74 degrees (84 degrees in the water.)
Oct. 23. - At the commencement of last night, westerly winds, the sky
clear; at the setting of the moon (about 3 o'clock a.m.), the wind
changed to the north-east; scuddy clouds passing rapidly from that
quarter; at sunrise it clears a little, but the whole morning cloudy, and
fine travelling weather.
We travelled in a north-westerly direction, through a Casuarina thicket,
but soon entered again into fine open Ironbark forest, with occasionally
closer underwood; leaving a Bricklow scrub to our right, we came to a dry
creek with a deep channel; which I called "Acacia Creek," from the
abundance of several species of Acacia. Not a mile farther we came on a
second creek, with running water, which, from the number of Dogwood
shrubs (Jacksonia), in the full glory of their golden blossoms. I called
"Dogwood Creek." The creek came from north and north-east and flowed to
the south-west, to join the Condamine. The rock of Dogwood Creek is a
fine grained porous Psammite (clayey sandstone), with veins and nodules
of iron, like that of Hodgson's creek. A new gum-tree, with a
rusty-coloured scaly bark, the texture of which, as well as the
seed-vessel and the leaf, resembled bloodwood, but specifically
different; the apple-tree (Angophora lanceolata); the flooded-gum; a
Hakea with red blossoms; Zierea; Dodonaea; a crassulaceous plant with
handsome pink flowers; a new myrtaceous tree of irregular stunted growth,
about 30 feet high, with linear leaves, similar to those of the rosemary;
a stiff grass, peculiar to sandstone regions; and a fine Brunonia, with
its chaste blue blossoms, adorn the flats of the creek as well as the
forest land. The country is at present well provided with water and
grass, though the scattered tufts of Anthistiria, and the first
appearance of the small grass-tree (Xanthorrhaea), render its constancy
very doubtful. The winding narrow-leaved Kennedyas, Gnaphaliums in
abundance; Aotus in low bushes.
No game, except a kangaroo rat, pigeons, ducks, and mutton-birds. Mr.
Phillips brought a crawfish from the creek: it had just thrown off its
old shell. Fresh-water muscles plentiful, though not of the size of those
of the Condamine. A small rat was caught this morning amongst our flour
bags; it had no white tip at the tail, nor is the tail so bushy as that
of the rabbit-rat: probably it was a young animal.
Oct. 24. - The creek being boggy, we had to follow it down for several
miles to find a crossing place. Even here, one of the horses which
carried the tea, fell back into the water, whilst endeavouring to
scramble up the opposite bank, and drenched its valuable load. We now
travelled through a country full of lagoons, and chains of water-holes,
and passed through several patches of cypress-pine, until we came to
another creek with rocky water-holes, with the fall to the eastward,
probably joining Dogwood Creek, from which we were not four miles
distant. Fine grassy flats accompanied the creek on its left, whilst a
cypress-pine forest grew on its right bank. The latitude of our
yesterday's camp was 26 degrees 26 minutes 30 seconds and, to-day, we are
only four miles more to the westward. The country is still so flat and so
completely wooded - sometimes with scrubs, thickets, Acacia, and Vitex
groves, sometimes with open Ironbark forest intermingled with spotted
gum - that no view of distant objects can be obtained. Several
Epacridaceous shrubs and species of Bossiaea and Daviesia reminded me of
the flora of the more southern districts.
Oct. 25. - We travelled about twelve miles in a north-westerly direction,
our latitude being 26 degrees 15 minutes 46 seconds. The country in
general scrubby, with occasional reaches of open forest land. The
rosemary-leaved tree of the 23rd was very abundant. An Acacia with spiny
phyllodia, the lower half attached to the stem, the upper bent off in the
form of an open hook, had been observed by me on the sandstone ridges of
Liverpool Plains: and the tout ensemble reminded me forcibly of that
locality. The cypress-pine, several species of Melaleuca, and a fine
Ironbark, with broad lanceolate, but not cordate, glaucous leaves, and
very dark bark, formed the forest. An arborescent Acacia, in dense
thickets, intercepted our course several times. Bronze-winged pigeons
were very numerous, but exceedingly shy.
The stillness of the moonlight night is not interrupted by the screeching
of opossums and flying squirrels, nor by the monotonous note of the
barking-bird and little owlet; no native dog is howling round our camp in
the chilly morning: the cricket alone chirps along the water-holes; and
the musical note of an unknown bird, sounding like "gluck gluck"
frequently repeated, and ending in a shake, and the melancholy wail of
the curlew, are heard from the neighbouring scrub.
Oct. 26. - Our journey was resumed: wind in the morning from the west;
light clouds passing rapidly from that quarter.
Messrs. Hodgson and Roper, following the chain of ponds on which we had
encamped, came to a large creek, with high rocky banks and a broad stream
flowing to the south-west.
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