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
2D OCTOBER.--At 6 A.M. the thermometer gave a temperature of 59 deg.. The
height above the sea was 1081 feet. In tracing back our old track, I sent
Corporal Graham to examine a part of the river channel likely to contain
water, and the report of his pistol some time after in the woods,
welcomer than sweetest music to our ears just then, guided us to the
spot, where he had found a small pond containing enough for all our
wants. For the men, having no more tea or sugar, a good drink was all
that was required; the poor fellows prepared my tea not the less
assiduously, although I could have had but little comfort in drinking it
under such circumstances, without endeavouring to share what was almost
indivisible. We this day performed a long journey, reaching our former
bivouac, of the 16th September, on Graham's creek, at an early hour.
Three emus were seen feeding close by; but, although several attempts
were made to get near them, with a horse stalking, we could not kill any
of them.
3D OCTOBER.--Soon after we had quitted our bivouac, the emus were again
seen on the plains. I could not deny the men the opportunity thus
afforded them of obtaining some food; for, although they concealed their
hunger from me, I knew they were living on bread and water. Graham
succeeded in wounding one of the birds, which, nevertheless, escaped. He
then chased a female followed by about a dozen young ones, towards us,
when we caught three. It had occurred to me this morning, to mark and
number the bivouacs we had occupied thus far, for the purpose of future
reference, when any other party might proceed, or be sent again, into
this country. I had, therefore, cut the number 73 on a tree at this
bivouac of 3d October, under the initials N.S.W. We pursued a straight
course over the downs, east by compass, until we joined our old route
along the water-course, from our camp near the gap, and this brought us
back, at an early hour to that spot, where I marked a tree with the
figures 72.
4TH OCTOBER.--We recrossed the brigalow range, (where the temperature, at
9 A.M., was 79 deg.,) and alighted by the pond at the junction of the Nivelle
and Nive; near where we had passed the night of the 12th September. This
day we again saw the CALLITRIS; a tree so characteristic of sandy soils,
but of which we had not observed a single specimen in the extensive
country beyond. Marked 71 on a tree.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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