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)
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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
15TH OCTOBER.--Last evening the wind blew keenly, and the night was cold,
the temperature very different from that experienced of late. The morning
presented a thick haze and drizzling rain, this kind of weather being
rather favourable for crossing the loose sandy surface, which the men
dreaded, remembering how it had before affected their eyes. I at first
endeavoured to travel this day along the river bank, but I found its
course so tortuous, and the country on its banks so hilly and rocky, that
I left it, and proceeded in a direction that would intersect the former
track. We thus passed through a fine open forest, fell in with our old
track at a convenient point, and found water still in the pond at the
camp of 15th June, where we therefore again set up our tents. The sky had
cleared up, and the air was pleasantly cool, with a fine breeze blowing
from S.E. On the river bank, we observed this day the native bramble, or
Australian form of RUBUS PARVIFOLIUS, L. A small nondescript animal ran
before Mr. Stephenson and myself this morning. It started from a little
bush at the foot of a tree, had large ears, a short black tail, ran like
a hare, and left a similar track. It was about the size of a small
rabbit. The death of our dogs on the Bogan, under the intense heat and
drought, had been a very serious loss to us, as we found on many
occasions like this; and where kangaroos, of apparently rare species,
escaped from us from our having no dogs. We were, also, from want of such
dogs, much more exposed to attacks of the natives. Evening again cloudy.
Thermometer, at sunrise, 45 deg.; at noon, 64 deg.; at 4 P.M., 67 deg.; at 9, 57 deg.;--
with wet bulb, 50 deg..
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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