- We Had Hardly Begun To Lade The Horses, When The Rain
Recommenced With Greater Violence Than In The Night, And Effectually
Prevented Us From Proceeding.
The country presents sufficient
obstructions to our progress, not to render the delay caused by a day's
rain a matter of much inquietude.
The loss of time is of little
consideration, when compared with the soft and boggy ground which such
heavy falls leave. A species of banksia was seen to-day under the same
meridian as on the Macquarie. It would seem that particular productions
of the vegetable as well as of the mineral kingdom run in veins nearly
north and south through the country. This peculiarity has been remarked
of other plants, besides the species of banksia.
August 17. - Our course this day led us over a barren, rocky country,
consisting of low stony ranges, divided by valleys of pure sand, and
usually wet and marshy: latterly we appear to be descending from a
considerable height, to a lower country to the north-east. The whole was
a mere scrub covered with dwarf iron barks, apple trees, and small gums;
the soil scarcely any thing but sand, on which grass grew in single
detached roots. The horses fell repeatedly in the course of the day,
and they were now so weak that they sank at every soft place. Between
four and five o'clock, after travelling about ten hours, we stopped at a
small drain of water for the night, having accomplished nearly eleven
miles. In our track we saw no signs of natives, and the country seemed
abandoned of every living thing. Silence and desolation reigned around.
August 18. - It is impossible to describe in adequate language the
different trying obstructions we encountered during this day's journey:
after meeting and overcoming many minor difficulties of bog and
quicksand, we had accomplished nearly eleven miles, and were looking out
for a place to rest, when we entered a very thick forest of small iron
barks which had been lately burnt; and their black stems and branches,
with the dull bluish colour of their foliage, gave the whole a
singularly dismal and gloomy appearance. So thick was the forest that we
could hardly turn our horses, nor could the sun's rays penetrate to the
sandy desert on which these trees grew. Without the usual appearances of
a bog, our horses were in an instant up to their bellies, and the
difficulties we had in extricating them would hardly obtain belief. In
this dilemma, scarcely able to see which way to turn, we traversed the
margin of this extensive quicksand for nearly three miles in a direction
contrary to our course, before we could find firm ground or water for
the horses, which we did not effect till sunset; and then (as for the
last three days) there was nothing for them to eat but prickly grass,
which possesses no nourishing qualities. This fare, after their hard
labour, reduces them daily.
August 19. - After wandering about the whole day without gaining any
thing on our course, for the quicksands kept us revolving as it were in
a circle, the exhaustion of the horses obliged us to stop. It was
painful to behold them, after being disencumbered of their loads, lay
themselves down like dogs about us: it was the fourth day that they had
been without grass, and they preferred the tender branches of shrubs,
etc., to the prickly grass. The backs of the greater part of them were,
notwithstanding every care, dreadfully galled, so that they could, when
first saddled, scarcely stand under their burdens. These quicksands lie
in the hollows between the low irregular hills, which rise on this
otherwise level country: their point of discharge is uniformly
north-westerly. The union of many of these minor drains forms
occasionally a large one, and the points of the hills which meet upon
them afford the only means of crossing them. It was evident that the
early part of the winter had been very wet., and the late rains had
probably been the cause of these morasses, which still continued to
drain themselves off in running water. This region must at all times be
impassable from opposite causes: in wet seasons it is a bog; in dry
ones, there is no water. Finding, as above remarked, that northerly and
north-east the country declined as it were to nothing, it was resolved
to pursue a more easterly course than that hitherto followed; and
instead of attempting to go round the morasses which we might meet with
to the north, to follow them southerly, a course which in time must
certainly take us to a more elevated country. Such a road is rendered
now absolutely necessary by the condition of the horses. Our dogs, which
had so long contributed to our support, had been for the last four days
dependant upon us for theirs, and we were too much indebted to their
exertions not to share our meals with them with cheerfulness. These
woods abound with kangaroo rats, and it is singular that, pinched as the
dogs were, they would not touch them even when cooked.
August 20. - This day after travelling upwards of nine miles, and having
pushed the horses at the risk of their lives through two minor branches
of the bog, what was our mortification to find, that we were within a
few hundred yards of the spot we set out from! We had first attempted
to cross the main bog northerly, and afterwards kept along its edge
southerly; and the result was, that we found it to extend in a complete
circle around us. From a slight rise in the centre of it, we could see
the country to the north-east, north, and north-west, low and uneven;
Hardwicke's Range distant about forty miles, bounding it between the
north and east. The result of this day's exertion quite subdued our
fortitude, and for a moment a feeling nearly allied to despair had
possession of our minds.
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