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
19TH MARCH.--Pursuing the Narran, keeping its eastern or left bank, our
course this day was more to the northward. I encamped after travelling
six miles, not only because the ground was soft and heavy for the drays,
but because I saw that the Narran turned much to the eastward, and I
contemplated the passage across it, intending to look for it again, by
travelling northward. Accordingly, as soon as our ground had been marked
out, I crossed to reconnoitre the country in that direction. I found a
fine, open, grassy country, but no signs of the river at the end of five
miles, nor even until I had ridden as far eastward. There, recrossing it,
I returned to the camp through some fine open forest country. Latitude
observed, 29 deg. 21' 51", S. Thermometer at sunrise, 57 deg.; at 4 P. M., 96 deg.;
at 9, 71 deg.;--with wet bulb, 62 deg..
20TH MARCH.--Retracing my homeward tracks of yesterday, we proceeded in a
nearly E. N. E. direction, along much firmer ground than we had recently
traversed. The great eastern bend of the river was found amongst much
excellent grass and amidst much fine timber. A species of Anthistiria
appeared here, which seemed different from the ordinary sort, although
this was no stranger to me, when exploring the waterless plains westward
of the Lachlan, where it looked as if stunted for want of moisture. Here,
however, this variety presented the same knotty head, where other grasses
grew luxuriantly. After getting round the extreme eastern turn of the
Narran we encamped. Near the spot large rocks appeared in the bed, as if
the river was passing through the stock of the gravelly ridge I had
visited on the 18th. The rock consisted of that found about the basin of
the Darling; a quartzose conglomerate with much felspar, and having
pebbles of quartz imbedded. The large fragments of the conglomerate in
the river bed were angular, and not at all rounded at the edges. Here the
poor natives had been very industrious, as was evident from heaps of the
grass PANICUM LOEVINODE, and of the same redstalked coral-like plant,
also mentioned as having been observed in similar heaps, on the banks of
the Darling, during my journey of 1835 (vol. i. p. 238). I now
ascertained that the seed of the latter is also collected by the natives
and made into a paste. This seed was black and small, resembling fine
gunpowder when shaken out. Nevertheless it was sweet and pleasant to the
taste, possessing a nutty flavour.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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