I Never
Saw A Stream With So Many Sinuosities; In Many Places A Quarter Of A
Mile Would Cut Off At Least Three Miles By The River.
The stream was in
places much contracted, sand banks stretching nearly across; its medium
depth was about eight feet.
There was not the smallest eminence whence a view might be obtained, the
country appearing a dead level; and although on these plains we could
see for some distance all round, yet there was not a rising ground in
any direction. The plains on the north side of the stream were named
Holdsworthy; and those on the south, Harrington. We were lucky enough to
procure two fine emus.
June 30. - The first two or three miles were somewhat harder travelling
than the greater part of yesterday. Immense plains extended to the
westward, as far as the eye could reach. These plains were entirely
barren, being evidently in times of rain altogether under water, when
they doubtless form one vast lake: they extended in places from three to
six miles from the margin of the stream, which on its immediate borders
was a wet bog, full of small water holes, and the surface covered with
marsh plants, with a few straggling dwarf box-trees. It was only on the
very edge of the bank, and in the bottoms of the bights, that any
eucalypti grew; the plains were covered with nothing but gnaphalium: the
soil various, in some places red tenacious clay, in others a dark
hazel-coloured loam, so rotten and full of holes that it was with
difficulty the horses could travel over them.
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