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
3D MARCH.--Early this morning a party of men were sent to cut better
approaches to the ford across the Barwan at Mr. Parnell's station.
Ascertained the longitude of the junction of the rivers Macquarie and
Darling at our present camp to be 147 deg. 33' 45" E., by actual measurements
connected with my former surveys of the colony. Mr. Kennedy had chained
the whole of the route from Bellaringa, and I had connected his work with
latitudes observed at almost every encampment, and after determining at
various points the magnetic variation, which appeared to be very steady,
I made the latitude of this camp 30 deg. 6' 11" south. Thermometer at
sunrise, 72 deg.; at noon, 99 deg.; at 4 P.M., 97 deg.; at 9, 72 deg.; and with wet bulb,
65 deg.. The height above the sea level of the bed of the river here, the
average result of eight observations, as calculated by Capt. King, was
415 feet.
4TH MARCH.--The party moved off towards the ford over the Barwan at
Wyabry, crossing the bed of the Macquarie about half a mile above its
junction with the Barwan; there, although the approaches had been well
enough cut, we found the bottom too soft for our heavy vehicles, one of
which dipped its wheel to near the axle. We were obliged to pave the soft
and muddy bed with logs, and to cover these with branches, on which earth
was thrown, ere the rest could be got across. The party arrived about
noon at Wyabry, and by 2 P.M. the whole was safely encamped on the right
bank of the Barwan. I had received this morning a dispatch from my son,
commissioner of this district, in which he gave me a most favourable
account of several rivers he had explored in the direction of my proposed
route. These dispatches came to me at the last camp by the hands of a
native, in forty-four hours after the superintendent of Mr. Lawson, being
then on his way down the river, had promised to send them to me, from a
station forty-five miles off, towards Fort Bourke, where it had been
supposed my party would pass. Lat. of this camp, 30 deg. 5' 41" S. On this
northern bank of the Darling we looked for novelty in botany, and found
some interesting plants, such as a toothed variety of SENERIO
BRACHYLOENUS D. C., a kind of groundsel; MORGANIA FLORIBUNDA, loaded with
purple blossoms, and a variety of HELICHRYSUM BRACTEATUM, somewhat
different in the leaves from the usual state of the species. Thermometer
at sunrise, 70 deg.; at 4 P.M., 98 deg.; at 9, 72 deg.;--with wet bulb, 61 deg..
Chapter III.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account