Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, Volume 1: With Descriptions of the Recently Explored Region of Australia Felix, and of the Present Colony of New South WalesMitchell, T. L. (Thomas Livingstone)
History
Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, Volume 1: With Descriptions of the Recently Explored Region of Australia Felix, and of the Present Colony of New South Wales
Mitchell, T. L. (Thomas Livingstone)
Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Mitchell, T. L. (Thomas Livingstone), 1792-1855
The party moved off at half-past eight o'clock, and at half-past nine it
crossed Goobang creek, or chain of ponds. This channel contained some
deep pools, apparently proof against the summer drought. The Goobang has
its sources in the ravines between Harvey's and Croker's ranges, the
course being towards the Lachlan. In this and other tributaries of the
same river I observed that all the permanent pools were surrounded by
reeds.
As we proceeded beyond the Goobang, chiefly in a north-west direction, we
found the country tolerably level and to consist of what in the colony is
termed open forest land. We crossed one or two eminences, but the carts
met with no impediment in a journey of fifteen miles.
The principal hill consisted of traprock, and was so naked that only one
or two trees of the Sterculia heterophylla grew upon it. The native name
for it was Pakormungor, and from its top I recognised Mounts Juson and
Laidley, and near me various low features which I had intersected from
those stations. The rock, in other places less elevated, consisted of
schist or slate in laminae, dipping to the east at an angle of 60
degrees. Some very rich ironstone also occurred on the surface.
THE DOGS KILL THREE LARGE KANGAROOS.
This day three large kangaroos were killed by our dogs, one of them
having been speared very adroitly during the chase by a native who
accompanied us from our last encampment.
From Pakormungor the country began to decline to the northward and, as we
descended into the basin of the Bogan, it improved in grass. The Acacia
pendula occurring here reminded me of the banks of the Namoi; and Mr.
Cunningham had a busy day in examining many interesting plants which he
had not previously seen on this journey.
We at length encamped on a lagoon to which the natives led us, and which
they named Cookopie.
WILD HONEY BROUGHT BY THE NATIVES.
We were now in a land flowing with honey, for our friendly guides, with
their new tomahawks, extracted it in abundance from the hollow branches
of the trees, and it seemed that, in the proper season, they could find
it almost everywhere. To such inexpert clowns, as they probably thought
us, the honey and the bees were inaccessible, and indeed invisible, save
only when the natives cut the former out, and brought it to us in little
sheets of bark, thus displaying a degree of ingenuity and skill in
supplying wants which we, with all our science, could not hope to attain.
Their plan was to catch a bee, and attach to it, with some resin or gum,
the light down of a swan or owl; thus laden the bee would make for its
nest in the branch of some lofty tree, and so betray its store of sweets
to its keen-eyed pursuers, whose bee-chase presented, indeed, a laughable
scene.
April 14.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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