Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia and Overland from Adelaide to King George's Sound in the Years 1840-1: Sent By the Colonists of South Australia, with the Sanction and Support of the Government: Including an Account of the Manners and Customs of the Aborigines and the State of Their Relations with Europeans — Volume 01 — John Shaqi
Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia and Overland from Adelaide to King George's Sound in the Years 1840-1: Sent By the Colonists of South Australia, with the Sanction and Support of the Government: Including an Account of the Manners and Customs of the Aborigines and the State of Their Relations with Europeans — Volume 01Eyre, Edward John
History
Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia and Overland from Adelaide to King George's Sound in the Years 1840-1: Sent By the Colonists of South Australia, with the Sanction and Support of the Government: Including an Account of the Manners and Customs of the Aborigines and the State of Their Relations with Europeans — Volume 01
Eyre, Edward John
Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Ethnology -- Australia
Under one low ridge we met with what I took to be a small spring
emanating from a limestone rock; but it was so small as to be quite
useless to a party like mine, though the natives appeared frequently to
have resorted to it. Finding the courses of the main channel become lost
in its many branches, I ascended the dividing ridge, and crossed into the
bed of another large watercourse, in which, after travelling but a short
distance, I found a fine spring of running water among some very broken
and precipitous ranges, which rose almost perpendicularly from the
channel; in the latter, high ledges of a slaty rock stretched
occasionally quite across its bed, making it both difficult and dangerous
to get our horses along. In the vicinity of the water the grass was
tolerably good, but the declivities upon which it principally grew, were
steep and very stony.
Having hobbled the horses, I took my gun, and walked down the
watercourse, to a place where it forms a junction with a larger one, but
in neither could I find any more water. Upon my return, I found that the
native boy had caught an opossum in one of the trees near, which proved a
valuable addition to our scanty and unvaried fare. The latitude to-day
was 30 degrees 51 minutes S.
July 16.--Tracing down the watercourse we were encamped on, to the
junction before mentioned, I steered a little more to the north, to
ascend a high stony range, from which I hoped to obtain a view to the
eastward; but after considerable toil in climbing, and dragging our
horses over loose rolling stones, which put them constantly in danger of
falling back, I was not rewarded for the trouble I had taken: the view to
the east was quite shut out by high rugged ranges of ironstone and
quartz, whilst to the north, the hills appeared lower and more open.
It now became a matter of serious consideration, whether I should pursue
my researches any farther at present. I was already about 120 miles away
from my party, with barely provisions enough to last me back; and the
country, in advance, appeared to be getting daily more difficult; added
to this, the "WATERWITCH" was waiting at the head of Spencer's Gulf for
my return.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account