Discoveries in Australia, Volume 2: Discoveries in Australia; with an Account of the Coasts and Rivers; Explored and Surveyed During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, in The; Years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43. By Command of the Lords Commissioners; Of the Admiralty. Also a Narrative of Captain Owen Stanley's Visits; To the Islands in the Arafura SeaStokes, John Lort
History
Discoveries in Australia, Volume 2: Discoveries in Australia; with an Account of the Coasts and Rivers; Explored and Surveyed During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, in The; Years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43. By Command of the Lords Commissioners; Of the Admiralty. Also a Narrative of Captain Owen Stanley's Visits; To the Islands in the Arafura Sea
Stokes, John Lort
Australia -- Description and travel; Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Natural history -- Australia
(**Footnote. Mr. Moore's description of the country near Champion Bay, is
as follows: "Judging by the eye at that distance, the entire space, as
far as we had any opportunity of seeing, after going a little way back
from the coast, on the slope to the hills, upon the hills, among the
hills, beyond the hills, and, in short, everywhere, as far as the eye
could discern, appeared a grassy country, thinly sprinkled with some low
trees or shrubs, perhaps acacias. If this be the case, and there be water
sufficient, of which there is no reason to doubt, this may certainly turn
out to be the finest district for sheep pasture that this colony can
possess." This testimony, one would have thought, was much too vague to
justify the expression of any decided opinion as to the capabilities of
the country. Mr. Moore judged entirely from a distant view with the naked
eye: he could not discern the nature of the trees, does not assert
positively that the land was grassy, is unable to speak with certainty as
to the existence of sufficient water, and ventures only to draw the
conditional conclusion that this district MAY turn out to be the finest
the colony can possess.
Mr. Bynoe, who accompanied me in my excursion over this part of the
continent, writes as follows respecting it: "There can be but one opinion
of the country in the vicinity of the supposed Port Grey, namely, that it
is comparatively sterile. All the soil passed over, during our two days'
journey, was of a sandy nature; and the gumtrees, particularly in the
open country, were stunted and gnarled. Isolated clumps, however, of a
taller, straighter, and smoother character, were met with in the dried
watercourses. Near Wizard Peak, the warran, or native yam seemed to grow
in great abundance, and to some considerable depth. There the soil could
be pretty well judged of; and the deeper the holes had been dug by the
natives to obtain the root, the more pure was the sand; it was only the
surface soil that held decayed vegetable matter. Twice during the trip,
near the bases of cliffs, I saw a few acres of alluvial deposit, two very
circumscribed beds, which were lost in the bottom of a watercourse,
sliding, as it were, gradually under the sand. Near Moresby's Range,
where the soil became freely mixed with ironstone and pebbles, the
vegetation was more stunted, consisting principally of a prickly bush,
mingled with coarse brown grass. During the whole time of our ramble, we
saw only three kangaroos, and five emus; and in some parts of the tall
scrub were wallaby tracks.")
Descending, we found the party left below in the dry bed of a watercourse
had failed in their endeavour to procure water by digging; we, therefore,
as we supposed, had no resource but to return, exhausted as we were, to
the brackish water-pools we had seen in the Chapman or Greenough.
NATIVE WELL AND BURIAL PLACE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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