Journals of Two Expeditions into the Interior of New South WalesOxley, John
History
Journals of Two Expeditions into the Interior of New South Wales
Oxley, John
New South Wales -- Discovery and exploration; Oxley, John, 1783-1828
To the valley I gave the name of Emmeline's Valley, and the hill from
which we corrected our survey with Mount Melville and Mount Cunningham,
Macnamara's Hill. The day was clear and mild, and in the course of it
some new and fine plants were procured.
August 9.--The morning fine and pleasant. At half past eight we left the
valley, intending still to keep our course north of east, as the most
likely point on which to make the Macquarie River, from which, judging
by the botanical productions of that stream, we cannot be very far.
For three or four miles the country was tolerably open and good, being
clothed with luxuriant broom-grass. The cypress trees of good
dimensions; but no signs of water. For the remainder of our day's
journey, we passed over tracts of low barren ridges covered with brush,
and iron bark trees, and open valleys; the country was of moderate
elevation, but still we were not so fortunate as to find any water,
although every slope was searched. After having travelled fourteen
miles, during the latter part of which it rained hard, I thought it most
advisable to stop, as we had just passed through a thick brush into a
more open country, which would afford the horses something to eat; the
rain, which still continued, relieving us from apprehension of their
suffering much from want of water. As to ourselves, we had taken our now
usual precaution to fill our keg, which gave us a pint each for our
evening consumption, and the same quantity for breakfast the next
morning.
In the course of the day the stirculia heterophylla was very abundant,
and we remarked that the cypresses were those originally known as the
callitris australis, and not of either of the other two species, which
were common in the neighbourhood of the Lachlan. The brushes and scrubs
were the only places that afforded any thing to the researches of the
botanists; the open lands being covered with grass, and the shrubs being
of acacias whose species had been already often seen on this side of the
Blue Mountain range.
August 10.--The morning proved clear and mild, and at nine we again
proceeded; as it was impossible to remain in a place that did not afford
us any water, and not good grass.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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