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 02Eyre, 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 02
Eyre, Edward John
Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Ethnology -- Australia
Our road was over scrubby and stony undulations, with patches of dry
grass here and there; in other parts, we passed over a very sandy soil of
a red colour, and overrun by immense tufts of prickly grass (spinifex),
many of which were three and four yards in diameter. After pushing on for
eighteen miles, I felt satisfied we had left the natives far behind, and
finding a patch of grass for the horses, halted for the remainder of the
night. It was quite impossible, after all we had gone through, to think
of watching the horses, and my only means of preventing from them
straying, was to close the chains of their hobbles so tight, that they
could not go far; having thus secured them, we lay down, and for a few
hours enjoyed uninterrupted and refreshing sleep.
Moving on again on the 1st of May, as the sun was above the horizon, we
passed through a continuation of the same kind of country, for sixteen
miles, and then halted for a few hours during the heat of the day. We had
passed many recent traces of natives both yesterday and to-day, who
appeared to be travelling to the westward. After dividing a pot of tea
between us, we again pushed on for twelve miles, completing a stage of
twenty-eight miles, and halting, with a little dry grass for the horses.
It was impossible they could endure this much longer, they had already
been five days without water, and I did not expect to meet with any for
two days more, a period which I did not think they could survive. As yet
no very great change had taken place in the country; it was still scrubby
and rocky, but the surface stone now consisted of a cream-coloured
limestone of a fine compact character, and full of shells. The cliffs,
parallel with which we were travelling, were still of about the same
height, appearance, and formation as before, whilst the inland country
increased in elevation, forming scrubby ridges to the back, with a few
open grassy patches here and there. One circumstance in our route to-day
cheered me greatly, and led me shortly to expect some important and
decisive change in the character and formation of the country. It was the
appearance for the first time of the Banksia, a shrub which I had never
before found to the westward of Spencer's Gulf, but which I knew to
abound in the vicinity of King George's Sound, and that description of
country generally. Those only who have looked out with the eagerness and
anxiety of a person in my situation, to note any change in the vegetation
or physical appearance of a country, can appreciate the degree of
satisfaction with which I recognised and welcomed the first appearance of
the Banksia. Isolated as it was amidst the scrub, and insignificant as
the stunted specimens were that I first met with, they led to an
inference that I could not be mistaken in, and added, in a tenfold
degree, to the interest and expectation with which every mile of our
route had now become invested. During the day the weather had been again
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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