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 — CompleteEyre, 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 — Complete
Eyre, Edward John
Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Ethnology -- Australia
October 26.--Sending the dray on under the guidance of the native boy, I
rode with Mr. Scott up to Mr. White's station to wish him good bye, and
to make another effort to secure an additional dog or two; finding that
he would not sell the noble mastiff I so much wished to have, I bought
from him two good kangaroo dogs, at rather a high price, with which I
hastened on after the drays, and soon overtook them, but not before my
new dogs had secured two fine kangaroos. For the first few miles we
crossed a low flat country, which afterwards became undulating and
covered with dwarf scrub, after this we passed over barren ridges for
about three miles, with quartz lying exposed on the surface and timbered
by the bastard gum or forest casuarinae. We then descended to a level
sandy region, clothed with small brush, and having very many salt lakes
scattered over its surface; around the hollows in which these waters were
collected, and occasionally around basins that were now dry, we found
large trees of the gum, together with a few casuarinae. A very similar
kind of low country appeared to extend far to the eastward and
north-west.
Kangaroos were very numerous, especially near those hollows, that were
surrounded by gum-trees, to which they retired for shelter during the
heat of the day. We encamped at night in the midst of many of these salt
lakes, without any water, but the grass was good. Our stage had been 25
miles upon a course of N. 25 degrees W. After watching the horses for a
few hours, we tied them up for the night, not daring to trust them loose
without water. A few natives had been seen during the day, but they ran
away.
A singular feature attending the salt lakes, or the hollows where water
had formerly lodged, was the existence of innumerable small stones,
resembling biscuits or cakes in shape, perfectly circular and flat, but a
little convexed in the upper surface, they were of various sizes, and
appeared to consist of lime, being formed into their present shape by the
action of water. Very similar ones have since been found in the volcanic
region near Mount Gambier, on the southern coast of New Holland. From our
present camp were seen before us to the north-west some low green looking
ranges, lightly timbered, and promising a better country than we had
hitherto met with.
October 27.--Having arrived at the hills, in about three miles, we found
them abundantly grassed, but very rugged and rocky, of an oolitic
limestone formation, with occasionally a light reddish soil covering the
rock in the flats and valleys. Between these ranges and the sea, which
was about a mile beyond them, were rather high sand hills, having a few
stunted trees growing upon them, but otherwise destitute of vegetation.
No water could be found, nor were there any watercourses from the hills,
where we examined them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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