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
these, but no shields; a plain indication that they were not then armed
for war against other aborigines. Thermometer, at sunrise, 36 deg.; at noon,
68 deg.; at 4 P.M., 73 deg.; at 9, 49 deg.;--with wet bulb, 40 deg..
[* Deposited in the British Museum (60, 61.).]
30TH OCTOBER.--We were now fifty-two miles from the junction of the dry
channel we crossed by the Balonne, and forty from the nearest part of our
former route, in advancing into this country. The risk of want of water
was worth encountering in the most direct line homewards, which was by
following down this river. I travelled, as straight as the bush would
allow, towards the junction; Graham examining the channel while we
proceeded. No water was found where the rivers united. Having halted the
small party with me, I followed one branch many miles with Yuranigh, but
all we could find were some wells, dug by natives, in a part of the sandy
bed; in one of which Yuranigh found, by a long bough he thrust in, that
there was moisture about five feet below the surface. I returned,
determined to encamp near this, and dig a well. The bullock teams had
also arrived when I returned to the party, and I learnt that Drysdale,
having observed that my little dog Procyon came in wet, had been led to
the discovery of a lagoon about three miles back, at which the cattle had
been already watered. I immediately encamped. At finding water the dog
was most expert, the native next, we inferior to both. We had come about
fifteen miles, and I wished to lay down the journey on the map. On doing
this, I found we had at length attained a point from whence, in case of
necessity, we could go as far as the Balonne, even if no water were found
in the country intervening, the direct distance being under forty miles.
During the afternoon, a still larger lagoon was found, higher up than the
first. I resolved to give the cattle a day's rest, and then to proceed
prepared, by well watering them previously, to travel on to the Balonne,
but not with much expectation that scarcity of water would oblige us to
go so far. Thermometer, at sunrise, 34 deg.; at noon, 70 deg.; at 4 P. M., 78 deg.;
at 9, 60 deg.;--with wet bulb, 46 deg..
31ST OCTOBER.--Two men were sent to the westward, where they found a dry
sandy country with pines, the same as that seen by me on my first ride
from St. George's bridge to the N.W., on the 18th of April. I was myself
engaged at the camp, on my general map of the country. Thermometer, at
sunrise, 33 deg.; at noon, 81 deg.; at 4 P. M., 84 deg.; at 9, 51 deg.--wet bulb, 43 deg..
Height above the sea, 882 feet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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