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
The breeze set in full and strong, as usual, at a quarter past eight
o'clock; the night was bright and cool, and the following morning
inexpressibly beautiful.
We enjoyed a dish of cockatoos for supper: the place abounds with them.
Jan. 27.--Charley went back to bring forward our party, whilst I
proceeded with Mr. Calvert to reconnoitre the plains under the peaks,
feeling confident of finding water at their foot. We passed over plains
and lightly-timbered basaltic ridges, between which shallow creeks came
down from the range, but we only found water in one or two holes. The
plains in the neighbourhood of our intended camp were richly grassed; and
a species of Hypoxis and the native Borage (Trichodesma zeylanica, R.
Br.) adorned them with their bright yellow and blue blossoms. Farther on,
however, the grass had been burnt, and was not yet recovered. As the day
advanced, and the black soil became heated by the almost vertical sun,
the heat from above and from below became almost insupportable.
Three peaks of this range were particularly striking; two of them seemed
to be connected by a lower ridge, in a direction from S.E. to N.W. The
south-eastern I called "Roper's Peak," after my companion, who afterwards
ascended it with Murphy and Brown, and the north-western, "Scott's Peak,"
after Helenus Scott, Esq., of Glendon, Hunter's River, who had kindly
assisted me in my expedition. In a W. by S. direction from these, and
distant four or five miles, is another peak, to which I gave the name of
"Macarthur's Peak," after Mr. William Macarthur, of Cambden. All these
peaks are composed of Domite; and Roper's and Scott's Peaks are
surrounded by a sandstone formation, covered with a dense low scrub.
I passed between Roper's Peak and Macarthur's Peak, to the northward, and
came in sight of another very remarkable cone, which I afterwards called
Calvert's Peak, after my fellow-traveller, in consequence of his having
suffered severely in its neighbourhood, as I shall soon have to mention.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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