Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia, Volume 1Grey, George
History
Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia, Volume 1
Grey, George
Natural history -- Australia -- Western Australia; Western Australia -- Discovery and exploration
(*Footnote. This tree was also observed on this part of the continent by
Captain King, who met with it both at Cambridge Gulf and Careening Bay,
and describes it as follows: Mr. Cunningham was fortunate in finding the
fruit of the tree that was first seen by us at Cambridge Gulf, and had
for some time puzzled us from its immense size and peculiar appearance.
It proved to be a tree of the Natural Order Capparides, and was thought
to be a Capparis; the gouty habit of the stem, which was soft and spongy,
gave it an appearance of disease; but as all the specimens, from the
youngest plant to the full-grown tree, possessed the same deformed
appearance, it was evidently the peculiarity of its habit. The stem of
the largest of these trees measured twenty-nine feet in girt, whilst its
height did not exceed twenty-five feet. It bore some resemblance to the
Adansonia figured in the account of Captain Tuckey's expedition to Congo.
King's Australia volume 1 page 423.)
SINGULAR PIECES OF SANDSTONE.
I this day again remarked a circumstance which had before this period
elicited my attention; which was that we occasionally found fixed in the
boughs of trees, at a considerable height from the ground, pieces of
sandstone, nearly circular in form, about an inch and a half in
thickness, and from four to five in diameter, so that they resembled
small millstones. What was the object in thus fashioning and placing
these stones I never could conceive, for they were generally in the least
remarkable spots: they cannot point out burial places, for I have made
such minute searches that in such a case I must have found some of the
bones; neither can they indicate any peculiar route through the country,
for two never occur near one another.
PREPARATION TO BUILD A BOAT.
On my return to the camp I found that the schooner had not yet arrived; I
now began to fear that some accident had occurred, and made my
preparations accordingly. The party was fully prepared to meet such a
misfortune and, as we had the means of constructing a boat large enough
to take us to Swan River, I felt more anxious for the safety of those in
the vessel than for our own. That no time however might be lost I
examined the neighbourhood of the encampment and found that within our
immediate vicinity were plenty of trees well adapted for the purpose,
which I marked, and had some of them felled.
CHAPTER 7. HANOVER BAY AND ITS VICINITY.
OCCUPATION AT THE CAMP.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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