The Provisions And Heavy Baggage Were Carried By The People To A
Firmer Spot Of Ground, At Which Place The Horses Being Lightly Laden, We
Got Every Thing Transported To The River By One O'clock.
Castlereagh
River is certainly a stream of great magnitude; its channel is divided
by numerous islands covered with trees:
It measured in its narrowest
part one hundred and eighty yards, and the flood that had now risen in
it was such as to preclude any attempt to cross it. The outer banks were
good firm land, apparently free from floods, and extending not more on
this side than a quarter of a mile, when it became wet and marshy: the
banks were from twelve to seventeen feet high, and gradually sloped to
the water. The trees on this firm margin of land were a species of
eucalyptus, cypresses, and the sterculia heterophylla, with a few
casuarinae. This river doubtless discharges itself into that interior
gulf, in which the waters of the Macquarie are merged: to that river it
is in no respect inferior, and when the banks are full, the body of
water in it must be even still more considerable. Towards evening I
thought the waters were falling, which was an event we anxiously looked
for, to enable us to proceed to Arbuthnot's Range, from the heights of
which we hoped for an interesting view. Natives appear to be numerous;
their guniahs (or bark-huts) are in every direction, and by their
fire-places several muscle-shells of the same kind as those found on the
Lachlan and Macquarie Rivers were seen.
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