Journals Of Expeditions Of Discovery Into Central Australia And Overland From Adelaide To King George's Sound In The Years 1840-1: Sent By The Colonists Of South Australia By Eyre, Edward John
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Above The Cliffs The Appearance Of The Country Was The Same As We Had
Previously Found Upon Their Summits, With,
Perhaps, rather more scrub;
pigeons were numerous at the sand-hills, and several flocks of
red-crested and red-winged
Cockatoos were hovering about, watching for an
opportunity to feast upon the red berries I have before spoken of, and
which were here found in very great abundance, and of an excellent
quality. The sand, as usual at our encampments, was a most dreadful
annoyance, and from which we had rarely any respite. The large flies were
also very numerous, troublesome and irritating tormentors. They literally
assailed us by hundreds at a time, biting through our clothes, and
causing us constant employment in endeavouring to keep them off. I have
counted twenty-three of these blood-suckers at one time upon a patch of
my trousers eight inches square.
Being now at a part of the cliffs where they receded from the sea, and
where they had a last become accessible, I devoted some time to an
examination of their geological character. The part that I selected was
high, steep, and bluff towards the sea, which washed its base; presenting
the appearance described by Captain Flinders, as noted before. By
crawling and scrambling among the crags, I managed, at some risk, to get
at these singular cliffs. The brown or upper portion consisted of an
exceedingly hard, coarse grey limestone, among which some few shells were
embedded, but which, from the hard nature of the rock, I could not break
out; the lower or white part consisted of a gritty chalk, full of broken
shells and marine productions, and having a somewhat saline taste:
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