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
June 27.--In crossing the southern extremity of these large plains, we
came suddenly upon a small party of natives engaged in digging yams of
which the plains were full; they were so intent upon their occupation
that we were close to them before they were aware of our presence; when
they saw us they appeared to be surprised and alarmed, and endeavoured to
steal off as rapidly as they could without fairly taking to their heels,
for they were evidently either unwilling or afraid to run; finding that
we did not molest them they halted, and informed us by signs that we
should soon come to water, in the direction we were going. This I knew to
be true, and about three o'clock we were in front of a water-course, I
had on a former journey named the "Rocky river," from the ragged
character of its bed where we struck it.
We had been travelling for some distance upon a high level open country,
and now came to a sudden gorge of several hundred feet below us, through
which the Rocky river wound its course. It was a most singular and wild
looking place, and was not inaptly named by the men, the "Devil's Glen;"
looking down from the table land we were upon, the valley beneath
appeared occupied by a hundred little hills of steep ascent and rounded
summits, whilst through their pretty glens, flowed the winding stream,
shaded by many a tree and shrub--the whole forming a most interesting and
picturesque scene.
The bed of the watercourse was over an earthy slate, and the water had a
sweetish taste. Like most of the Australian rivers, it consisted only of
ponds connected by a running stream, and even that ceased to flow a
little beyond where we struck it, being lost in the deep sandy channel
which it then assumed, and which exhibited in many places traces of very
high floods. Below our camp the banks were 50 to 60 feet high, and the
width from 60 to 100 yards, its course lay through plains to the
south-west, over which patches of scrub were scattered at intervals, and
the land in its vicinity was of an inferior description, with much
prickly grass growing upon it.
Upwards, the Rocky river, after emerging from the gorges in which we
found it, descended through very extensive plains from the
north-north-east; there was plenty of water in its bed, and abundance of
grass over the plains, so that in its upper parts it offers fine and
extensive runs for either cattle or sheep, and will, I have no doubt, ere
many years be past, be fully occupied for pastoral purposes.
From our present encampment a very high and pointed hill was visible far
to the N.N. W. this from the lofty way in which it towered above the
surrounding hills, I named Mount Remarkable. Our latitude at noon was 33
degrees 25 minutes 26 seconds S.
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