Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia, in Search of a Route from Sydney to the Gulf of Carpentaria (1848)Mitchell, T. L. (Thomas Livingstone)
History
Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia, in Search of a Route from Sydney to the Gulf of Carpentaria (1848)
Mitchell, T. L. (Thomas Livingstone)
New South Wales -- Discovery and exploration; Queensland -- Discovery and exploration
[** E. CITRIODORA (Hook. MS.); ramis angulatis fuscis minute
tuberculatis, foliis lato-lanceolatis petiolatis pinnulatis patenti-
parallelo-venosis viridibus (non glaucis). Sir Wm. Hooker has ventured to
name this EUCALYPTUS, though without flower or fruit, from the
deliciously fragrant lemon-like odour, which exists in the dry as well as
the recent state of the plant.]
[*** C. NERVOSUM (Lindl. MS.); ramis pallidis, foliis ovato-lanceolatis
quinque-nerviis mucronatis junioribus tomentosis, rachi calycibusque
lanatis.]
[**** D. TRIGONA (Lindl. MS.); ramulis subpilosis, foliis obovato-
lanceolatis parum pilosis integerrimis vel utrinque unidentatis, capsulis
3-locularibus trigonis apteris.]
[***** A. MOLLIS (Benth. MS.); undique molliter tomentoso-villosus, ramis
crectis-rigidis, foliis sparsis anguste oblongis margine revolutis,
calycis vix bilabiati dentibus subaequalibus, ovario breviter stipitato
villosissimo.--Near A. PASSERINOIDES Meisn., but differing in the narrow
and longer leaves, the calyx and ovary.]
[****** G. LATIFOLIA (Lindl. MS.); foliis ovato-lanceolatis longe
petiolatis subtus obscure pubescentibus junioribus convolutis.--This
appears to differ from G. SALICIFOLIA in its long-stalked leaves.]
17TH JULY.--Our ride this morning soon led amongst different scenes. By
merely turning to the left we came upon a flat, in which another water-
course, similar to that we had been tracing (Balmy Creek), came from the
west, apparently out of that inaccessible country, across which I had
previously looked in vain for a passage. Several other gullies joined
this water-course, and seared the flat, which consisted of a deep clay
deposit, in almost every direction. After crossing these, we found a fine
broad opening between rocky precipices of most picturesque forms. This
gap I called Stephenson's Pass; it led into a spacious glen surrounded on
all sides but the N.W. by mountains such as I have described, recalling
to my memory the most imaginative efforts of Mr. Martin's saepia drawing,
and showing how far the painter's fancy may anticipate nature. But, at
the gorge of this valley, there stood a sort of watch-tower, as if to
guard the entrance, so like a work of art, that even here, where men and
kangaroos were equally wild and artless, I was obliged to look very
attentively, to be quite convinced that the tower was the work of nature
only. A turret with a pointed roof, of a colour corresponding, first
appeared through the trees, as if it had been built on the summit of a
round hill. On a nearer approach the fine tints of the yellowish grey
rocks, and the small pines climbing the sides of a hill abruptly rising
out of a forest of common trees, presented still a very remarkable
object. I named the valley "Glen Turret," and this feature "Tower
Almond," after an ancient castle, the scene of many early associations,
and now quite as uninhabited as this. Passing through Glen Turret, we
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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