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
At length we reached rising ground, rather a novelty to us; and I
continued my course across a ridge which appeared to be connected on the
south with Dunlop's range. It consisted of a very hard conglomerate
composed of irregular concretions of milk-white quartz, in a ferruginous
basis, with apparently compact felspar weathering white. It seemed the
same kind of rock which I found nearest to the Karaula, in latitude 29
degrees.* On this hill we encamped for the night, the bend of the river
nearest to us bearing north-north-east, and being distant about two
miles. It was almost sunset before we took up our ground, and we had
still to seek the nearest way to the river, through woods. Such occasions
tried the nettle of my men; but he who, at the close of such days, was
the first to set out for the river, with his bucket in hand, and musket
on shoulder, was the man for me. Such men were Whiting, Muirhead, and The
Doctor; and although I insisted on several going together on such an
errand, I had some trouble to prevent these from setting out alone. The
river made a sharp turn northward, and at the bend the water was deeper
and broader than we had seen it elsewhere. The taste was perfectly sweet.
(*Footnote. See below.)
June 12.
We travelled for several miles over stony ground which gradually rose to
a hill on our right, and then declined rapidly to the river. Descending
at length to the level ground, we passed through much scrub which
terminated on a plain, bounded on the side opposite to us by the large
gumtrees or eucalypti, the never-failing indicators of the river. The
stream there ran in a rather contracted channel, and over a sandy bed.
Its course was to the southward, in which direction extensive plains
appeared to stretch along its bank.
MEET THE PUPPY TRIBE.
As I approached the river a tribe of natives who were seated very near me
at their fires, under a large tree, called out. We communicated in the
usual manner, but I could learn nothing from them about the general
course of the Darling lower down. I gave them a clasp-knife and two young
pups of a good breed for killing kangaroos. They expressed astonishment
at everything (no common trait in the aborigines) and I was obliged to
sit cross-legged before a very old chief nearly blind while he examined
my dress, shirt, pockets, etc. This tribe, like the others, was not at
all numerous.
We proceeded until we arrived under the north-western extremity of
Dunlop's range, when we encamped on the margin of a small lagoon,
evidently the remains of some flood which had been produced by the
overflowing of the river, only half a mile distant to the north-west. The
lagoon was more convenient to us for watering our cattle than the river,
the left bank of which, adjacent to our camp, was broken to a much
greater distance back than I had observed it to be anywhere higher up.
ASCEND DUNLOP'S RANGE.
June 13.
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