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
16TH MARCH.--I proceeded six miles, and chose a camp beside a bend of the
Narran, full of deep water, and in the midst of most luxuriant grass. The
drays arrived by 11 A. M. in such good order, that I was induced to try
whether, by early starting, good feeding, and short journeys, the party
could not be got forward to the Balonne, where I could leave the whole in
one depot, to rest and refresh, while I took my intended ride forward.
Latitude, 29 deg. 34' 11" S. Thermometer at sunrise, 43 deg.; at noon, 86 deg.; at 4
P. M., 87 deg.; at 9, 62 deg.;--with wet bulb, 55 deg..
17TH MARCH.--I proceeded seven miles, and the drays came forward as well
as they did yesterday, so that I again entertained hopes of the progress
of the united party, which was very desirable, as these plains were
evidently sometimes so saturated with water as to be rendered wholly
impassable for wheel-carriages or even horses. Latitude, 29 deg. 29' 11" S.
Thermometer at sunrise, 47 deg.; at noon, 87 deg.; at 4 P. M., 91 deg.; at 9, 62 deg.;--
with wet bulb, 52 deg..
18TH MARCH.--Again we made out a short journey over rather soft ground;
all the drays coming in, although slowly. I rode to a gently rising
ground, a great novelty, which appeared bearing E. N. E. from our camp,
at a distance of 21/2 miles. I found it consisted of gravel of the usual
conglomerate decomposed--of rounded fragments of about a cubic inch in
bulk. The grass was good there, and I perceived that the same gravelly
ridge extended back from the river in a north and south direction.
Graceful groups of trees grew about this stony ground, which looked, upon
the whole, better than the red sandy soil of the scrubs and callitris
forest. This seemed the dividing ridge between the Narran and Barwan.
From this elevation, I saw that the course of the former ran still in a
good direction for us, to a great distance northward. On that stony
ground I found a new PITTOSPORUM five feet high, with long narrow leaves,
in the way of P. ROEANUM and ANGUSTIFOLIUM, but distinct from both in the
form of its fruit.[*] Latitude of camp 29 deg. 25' 21". Thermometer at
sunrise, 53 deg.; at noon, 90 deg.; at 4 P. M., 96 deg.; at 9, 69 deg.;--with wet bulb,
61 deg..
[* P. SALICINUM (Lindl. MS.); foliis lineari-lanceolatis coriaccis
acutissimis aveniis, pedunculis unifloris aggregatis axillaribus,
fructibus subglobosis vix compressis.]
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