Australia, its history and present condition: containing an account both of the bush and of the colonies,; with their respective inhabitantsPridden, W. (William)
History
Australia, its history and present condition: containing an account both of the bush and of the colonies,; with their respective inhabitants
Pridden, W. (William)
Australia -- Description and travel
It is no uncommon mistake, with persons who ought to know better, to
magnify the toils and hardships endured by the body, while those labours
and anxieties that the mind undergoes are disregarded and forgotten.
Every man engaged in an exploring party in the bush, for instance, has
his severe trials to go through, but their trials are not to be compared
to those of the commander of the party. How often when the rest are
sleeping must he be watchful? How frequently, while others are gay, must
he feel thoughtful! These remarks may easily be applied to the following
description of the coast near Shark's Bay, in the N. W. of the island of
New Holland. There was great beauty in the scenery, both the sky and the
water had that peculiar brilliancy about them to be seen only in fine
weather, and in a very warm climate. To the west lay a boundless extent
of sea, to the eastward was a low shore fringed with trees, not only
down to the water's edge, but forming little green knots of foliage in
the ocean itself; behind these trees were low wooded hills, and in
front of them were numbers of pelicans and water-fowl. There was only
about three feet depth of clear transparent water, through which were
seen many beautiful and large shells, and various strange-looking fish,
at some of which last one or other of Captain Grey's men would sometimes
make an attack, while loud peals of laughter would rise from the rest,
when the pursuer, too anxious to gain his object, would miss his stroke
at the fish, or, stumbling, roll headlong in the water. The fineness of
the day, the novelty of the scenery, and the rapid way they were making,
made the poor fellows forget past dangers, as well as those they had yet
to undergo. But this was more than their commander was able to do.
"My own meditations," adds Captain Grey, "were of a more melancholy
character, for I feared that the days of some of the light-hearted group
were already numbered, and would soon be brought to a close. Amid such
scenes and thoughts we were swept along, while this unknown coast, which
so many had anxiously yet vainly wished to see, passed before our eyes
like a dream, and ere many more years have hurried by, it is possible
that the recollection of this day may be as such to me."
Among the wonders of Nature to be met with in the Australian bush, the
large rivers occasionally dried up to their very lowest depth by the
extreme drought, are very remarkable. Few natural objects can equal in
beauty and utility a river in its proper state,--
"Though deep, yet clear; though gentle, yet not dull;
Strong without rage, without o'erflowing full;"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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