Day, but even
then they must be assured of finding food, of which, in these deserts,
the chances are against the existence.
Yesterday, being the King's birthday, Mr. Cunningham planted under Mount
Brogden acorns, peach and apricot-stones, and quince-seeds, with the
hope rather than the expectation that they would grow and serve to
commemorate the day and situation, should these desolate plains be ever
again visited by civilized man, of which, however, I think there is very
little probability.
Our observation placed the situation of the tent in lat. 34. 13. 33. S.,
long. 146. E.; the variation of the compass 8. 08. E.
June 6. - A mild pleasant morning: set forward on our journey to the
westward and north-west, in hopes of finding a better country: at two
o'clock halted about two miles from Peel's range, after going about
eight miles through a very thick cypress scrub; the country equally bad
as on any of the foregoing days. We saw no signs of water during our
route: the whole country seems burnt up with long continued drought; no
traces of natives, or any game seen.
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:
