Journal of an Overland Expedition in Australia: From Moreton Bay to Port Essington, a distance of upwards of 3000 miles, during the years 1844-1845Leichhardt, Ludwig
History
Journal of an Overland Expedition in Australia: From Moreton Bay to Port Essington, a distance of upwards of 3000 miles, during the years 1844-1845
Leichhardt, Ludwig
Australia -- Description and travel; Australia -- Discovery and exploration
June 19.--We travelled about eight miles N. 50 degrees W. lat. 16 degrees
22 minutes 16 seconds and again encamped at a very deep lagoon, covered
near its edges with Villarsias, but without Nymphaeas. The soil of the
flat round the lagoon, was very stiff and suitable for making bricks. The
country along the Mitchell was an immense uninterrupted flat with a very
clayey soil, on which the following plants were frequent: viz. Grevillea,
Cerotaphylla, and Mimosoides, a Melaleuca with broad lanceolate leaves,
Spathodea and a Balfouria, R. Br.
Whilst walking down by the lagoon, I found a great quantity of ripe
Grewia seeds, and, on eating many of them, it struck me, that their
slightly acidulous taste, if imparted to water, would make a very good
drink; I therefore gathered as many as I could, and boiled them for about
an hour; the beverage which they produced was at all events the best we
had tasted on our expedition: and my companions were busy the whole
afternoon in gathering and boiling the seeds.
Charley and Brown, who had gone to the river, returned at a late hour,
when they told us that they had seen the tracks of a large animal on the
sands of the river, which they judged to be about the size of a big dog,
trailing a long tail like a snake. Charley said, that when Brown fired
his gun, a deep noise like the bellowing of a bull was heard; which
frightened both so much that they immediately decamped. This was the
first time that we became aware of the existence of the crocodile in the
waters of the gulf.
June 20.--We travelled about ten miles north-west, and avoided the
gullies by keeping at a distance from the river. Plains covered with high
dry grass alternated with an open forest; in which we observed Spathodea,
Bauhinia, a Balfouria, groves of Cochlospermum gossypium, and several
other trees, which I had seen in the scrubs of Comet River; among which
was the arborescent Cassia with long pods. A Bauhinia, different from the
two species I had previously seen, was covered with red blossoms, which,
where the tree abounded, gave quite a purple hue to the country. The
stringy-bark, the bloodwood, the apple-gum, the box, and the flooded-gum,
grew along the bergue of the river.
We passed some fine lagoons at the latter end of the stage. The banks of
the river were so steep, that the access to its water was difficult; its
stream, deep and apparently slow, occupied about half the bed, which was
perhaps one hundred and eighty, or two hundred yards broad. The soil was
very sandy, and three deep channels parallel to the river were overgrown
with high stiff grass. A pretty yellow Ipomoea formed dense festoons
between the trees that fringed the waters. The unripe seeds of
Cochlospermum, when crushed, gave a fine yellow colour, shaded into an
orange hue.
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