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
25TH MARCH.--The cattle had now to return to bring forward the drays.
Meanwhile I took a ride up the river, in order to ensure a moderate
journey for these exhausted animals. Proceeding along the right bank, I
found gravelly slopes almost closing upon the river. The direction of its
course for four miles, was nearly southward. Then I saw gravelly ridges
on the left, and a line of wood before me, while the river evidently came
from the East round the margin of an extensive plain. I continued
northward; found a rosewood scrub: then saw the Malga tree; passed
through scrubs thereof; found myself on stony ridges, whence descending
in a N. E. direction, again passed through rosewood scrubs, and only
reached the river after riding 21/2 miles in that direction. I saw a
continuous ridge, bare and distant, beyond what I considered the river
bed, and a similar ridge to the westward. I crossed a native camp where
the newly deserted fires still smoked. We saw one man at a distance, who
did not mind us much; I could not have obtained any information from him,
and therefore did not seek a parley. Crossing the Narran there, by a
beaten track, beside a native fishing fence, I returned to the camp, on
the bearing of S. S. W., and found a grassy plain the whole way back,
until within sight of the tents, and a good rocky ford for the passage of
the party next day. On the stony ridge I found a remarkable shrub, a
species of Sida (ABUTILON), allied to S. GRAVEOLENS, Roxb., but distinct.
The teams brought the drays in, about 5 P. M.; one animal of all being
missing. Therm. at sunrise, 72 deg.; at noon, 89 deg.; at 4 P. M., 91 deg.; at 9,
60 deg.;--with wet bulb, 53 deg..
26TH MARCH.--Early this morning, William Baldock was sent back in search
of the stray bullock, while the party crossed the Narran, and proceeded
along my horse's track of yesterday. Baldock over took the party, having
found the bullock on the river, four miles below our late encampment. The
natives seen yesterday had disappeared, having previously set fire to the
grass. We proceeded two miles beyond their fires, and encamped on the
river bank in lat. 29 deg. 1' 57" S.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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