Want of water; for in that event it is my intention to
keep in its immediate vicinity until our arrival at Bathurst. Our course
made good was N. 71. E., distance thirteen miles and a quarter.
August 8. - Made the usual observations to ascertain our situation, the
result of which placed us in lat. 32. 47. 58. S., long. 147. 23. E., and
the variation of the needle 5. 20. E. The valley in which we encamped is
enclosed by forest hills on all sides but the east, affording us plenty
of water from what is, even at this dry season, a perceptible stream.
The grass however was quite killed by the frost, and, although abundant,
did not afford such nourishment to the horses as their condition
required, insomuch that if we fall in with a part of the country that
has been burnt in the course of to-morrow's route, I shall give them a
day's rest.
Kangaroos of a very large size abound in every direction around us: our
dogs killed one weighing seventy or eighty pounds, which proved a great
and refreshing acquisition to us.
To the valley I gave the name of Emmeline's Valley, and the hill from
which we corrected our survey with Mount Melville and Mount Cunningham,
Macnamara's Hill. The day was clear and mild, and in the course of it
some new and fine plants were procured.
August 9. - The morning fine and pleasant. At half past eight we left the
valley, intending still to keep our course north of east, as the most
likely point on which to make the Macquarie River, from which, judging
by the botanical productions of that stream, we cannot be very far.
For three or four miles the country was tolerably open and good, being
clothed with luxuriant broom-grass. The cypress trees of good
dimensions; but no signs of water. For the remainder of our day's
journey, we passed over tracts of low barren ridges covered with brush,
and iron bark trees, and open valleys; the country was of moderate
elevation, but still we were not so fortunate as to find any water,
although every slope was searched. After having travelled fourteen
miles, during the latter part of which it rained hard, I thought it most
advisable to stop, as we had just passed through a thick brush into a
more open country, which would afford the horses something to eat; the
rain, which still continued, relieving us from apprehension of their
suffering much from want of water. As to ourselves, we had taken our now
usual precaution to fill our keg, which gave us a pint each for our
evening consumption, and the same quantity for breakfast the next
morning.
In the course of the day the stirculia heterophylla was very abundant,
and we remarked that the cypresses were those originally known as the
callitris australis, and not of either of the other two species, which
were common in the neighbourhood of the Lachlan. The brushes and scrubs
were the only places that afforded any thing to the researches of the
botanists; the open lands being covered with grass, and the shrubs being
of acacias whose species had been already often seen on this side of the
Blue Mountain range.
August 10. - The morning proved clear and mild, and at nine we again
proceeded; as it was impossible to remain in a place that did not afford
us any water, and not good grass.
The country continued open forest land for about three miles, the
cypress and the bastard box being the prevailing timber; of the former
many were useful trees. We seemed neither ascending nor descending, but
travelling on somewhat of an elevated plain. The broom-grass was very
luxuriant, being four or five feet high; the soil, as before, a light,
red, sandy loam. To this open tract succeeded three miles of barren
brush land, covered with clumps of small cypresses, iron barks, and
acacias; the slightest elevation or ascent was always stony, and in one
or two places large masses of granite rock were observed. We have
hitherto seen no other signs of this being an inhabited country than the
marks usually made by the natives in ascending the trees, and none of
these were very recent. It is probable that they may see us without
discovering themselves, as it is much more likely for us to pass
unobserved the little family of the wandering native, than that our
party, consisting of so many men and horses, not travelling together,
but sometimes separated a mile or two, should escape their sight,
quickened as it is by constant exercise in procuring their daily food.
At the end of the brush we came upon a large chain of ponds, the fall of
water in which being north, induced us to believe that the Macquarie
could not be far distant: we proceeded down them about a mile, when the
situation offering us all we could wish for, we halted for the night, it
being past two o'clock, determining to remain here to-morrow for the
sake of the horses.
The country on the east side of this chain of ponds was again an open
forest as far as we could see in that direction; which however was not
very far, as we were nearly on a level. I rode down the ponds Six or
seven miles, hoping to fall in with their junction with the river. Two
or three miles from our halting-place the ground became very scrubby,
and was much over-run with brush and small pines; there were marks of
flood in the watercourse of the ponds, from eight to ten feet high. I
saw several shags, ducks, herons, cranes, and other birds that frequent
low or watery situations, but the night coming on obliged me to return.
