Explorations in Australia: The Journals of John McDouall Stuart During the Years 1858, 1859, 1860, 1861, and 1862, When He Fixed the Centre of the Continent and Successfully Crossed It from Sea to SeaStuart, John McDouall
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Explorations in Australia: The Journals of John McDouall Stuart During the Years 1858, 1859, 1860, 1861, and 1862, When He Fixed the Centre of the Continent and Successfully Crossed It from Sea to Sea
Stuart, John McDouall
Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Stuart, John McDouall, 1815-1866
Thursday 12th April, The Hugh. Started for the bluff. At eight miles we
again struck the creek coming from the west, and several other gum creeks
coming from the range and joining it. We have now entered the lower hills
of the range. Again have we travelled through a splendid country for
grass, but as we approached the creek it became a little stony. At twelve
miles we found a number of springs in the range. Here I obtained an
observation of the sun. As we approached near the bluff, our route became
very difficult; we could not get up the creek for precipices, and were
obliged to turn in every direction. About two miles from where I obtained
the observation, we arrived with great difficulty at the foot of the
bluff; it has taken us all the afternoon. I expected to have gone to the
top of it to-night, but it is too late. It will take half a day, it is so
high and rough. We are camped at a good spring, where I have found a very
remarkable palm-tree, with light-green fronds ten feet long, having small
leaves a quarter of an inch in breadth, and about eight inches in length,
and a quarter of an inch apart, growing from each side, and coming to a
sharp point. They spread out like the top of the grass-tree, and the
fruit has a large kernel about the size of an egg, with a hard shell; the
inside has the taste of a cocoa-nut, but when roasted is like a potato.
Here we have also the india-rubber tree, the cork-tree, and several new
plants. This is the only real range that I have met with since leaving
the Flinders range. I have named it the McDonnell Range, after his
Excellency the Governor-in-Chief of South Australia, as a token of my
gratitude for his kindness to me on many occasions. The east bluff I have
named Brinkley Bluff, after Captain Brinkley, of Adelaide, and the west
one I have named Hanson Bluff, after the Honourable R. Hanson, of
Adelaide. The range is composed of gneiss rock and quartz.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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