After two hours' search a small hole of water was found at the foot of
the range, sufficient for the horses, and in a hole in the rocks a
little clearer was procured for ourselves.
June 7. - Set forward to the north-west, the horses being a little
fresher than for some days past. Halted at four o'clock, having gone ten
miles through a country which, for barrenness and desolation, can I
think have no equal; it was a continued scrub, and where there was
timber it chiefly consisted of small cypress: we saw no water as usual,
but stopped on some burnt grass near the base of a low range of stony
hills west of Peel's range, from which we are distant eight or ten
miles. These ranges abound with native dogs; their howlings are
incessant, day as well as night: as we saw no game, their principal
prey must be rats, which have almost undermined this loose sandy
country.
As we had brought a small keg of water with us, we did not on this
occasion suffer absolute want: we hope that the instinct of the horses
would lead them to water in the course of the night - but we were too
sanguine.
Our spirits were not a little depressed by the desolation and want that
seemed to reign around us: the scene was never varied, except from bad
to worse. However, the scarcity of water and grass for the horses are
our greatest real privations, for the temperature is mild and equable
beyond what could be expected at this season, and it is this
circumstance alone that enables us to proceed: the horses are too much
reduced to endure rainy weather, even if the loose soil of the country
would permit us to travel over it.
June 8. - During the night there was light rain. At daylight sent out in
search of water, but all our efforts proved unsuccessful. Peel's range
being the nearest high land, I determined to search the base of it, in
hopes of finding water, since it was impossible that either men or
horses could long endure this almost constant privation of the first
necessary of life. I accordingly set off towards the range, but was
prevented from making it by impenetrable scrubs: we then returned to the
range a little to the west of the tent, whence we could see a
considerable distance to the west and north-west; it is impossible to
imagine a prospect more desolate. The whole country in these directions,
as far as the eye could reach, was one continued thicket of eucalyptus
scrub: it was physically impossible to proceed that way, and our
situation was too critical to admit of delay; it was therefore resolved
to return back to our last station on the 6th under Peel's range, if for
no other purpose than that of giving the horses water. I felt that by
attempting to proceed westerly I should endanger the safety of every man
composing the expedition, without any practical good arising from such
perseverance: it was therefore deemed more prudent to keep along the
base of Peel's range to its termination, having some chance of finding
water in its rocky ravines, whilst there was none at all in attempting
to keep the level country. It was too late to pursue this resolution
this evening.
June 9. - During the night heavy rain. At eight o'clock set off on our
return to our halting-place of the 6th, the horses having been now
forty-eight hours without water. We had scarcely proceeded a mile when
it began to rain hard, and continued to do so without intermission until
we stopped at the place where water had been previously found: it was by
this time two o'clock, the horses failed, and the people were in little
better condition, not having tasted any thing since the evening before.
All our clothes were wet through, a circumstance which added greatly to
the unpleasantness of our situation.
The true nature of the soil was fully developed by this day's rain.
Being in dry weather a loose light sand without any apparent
consistency, it was now discovered to have a small portion of loam mixed
with it, which, without having the tenacity of clay, is sufficient to
render it slimy and boggy: I am quite satisfied that two days' rain will
at any time render this country impassable. The mortification and
distress of mind I felt at being obliged to take a retrograde direction
was heightened by seeing the horses struggling under loads far beyond
their present powers, their labour rendered still more trying by the
miserable country they were obliged to pass through.
June 10. - Light rain during the night, the morning fair and pleasant:
upon mature deliberation it was resolved to remain here until the 13th,
for the purpose of refreshing the horses. I also determined to send a
detachment on before us, to endeavour to find an eligible station for us
to stop at, that we might proceed with more certainty.
Mr. Cunningham named those thick brushes of eucalyptus that spread in
every direction around us EUCALYPTUS DUMOSA, or the dwarf gum, as they
never exceed twenty feet in height, and are generally from twelve to
fifteen, spreading out into a bushy circle from their roots in such a
manner that it is impossible to see farther than from one bush to the
other; and these are very often united by a species of vine (cassytha),
and the intermediate space covered with prickly wire-grass, rendering a
passage through them equally painful and tedious
The low ranges of hills which we quitted yesterday morning we named
Disappointment Hills, from our not being able to penetrate beyond them
to the north-west or west, and also from our not finding any water on
them; our hopes being thus disappointed of penetrating into the interior
in the direction that I intended when we quitted Mount Brogden.
