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)
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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 ground was much better this day for travelling over. We passed
through a scrub of limited extent, and for the first time in these parts
we discovered a new species of casuarina. On ascending a small hill to
the left of our route I perceived two summits of a distant range, bearing
169 degrees 20 minutes (from North) and I was not sorry to see that the
intervening country was better wooded and undulated more than that we had
lately traversed, for wherever trees or bushes grew, we generally found
the ground to be hardest. We were compelled to travel much farther than I
intended in order to reach the river, which took a great sweep to the
west, a change in its direction which I had previously observed to take
place in the course of this river on approaching a similar feature on the
right bank. The river was narrower and its channel more contracted at
this part than at any other I had seen; indeed so great was the change in
the dimensions that I doubted whether this was more than an arm of it.
The current however ran at about the same rate, and the general course
for some miles to the southward was marked out, as usual, by large trees.
At the camp the head of the range on the right bank bore North 16 degrees
West.
CONVENIENT REFRACTION.
June 22.
The distant range which I observed during the journey of yesterday
appeared high above the horizon of our camp this morning, and the
refracted image was so perfect that with my glass I could distinguish the
trees and other objects. Thus I obtained bearings on the range from a
spot whence it could be but seldom visible. The small eminences to the
eastward, from which I first saw that range, were also refracted, and
appeared like cliffs on a sea coast. To the astonishment of the men all
the hills however soon disappeared. The Darling took some bends eastward
of south; and we were much troubled during this day's journey by the soft
ground through which we were obliged to travel in order to keep clear of
the river. At length I could proceed south-west, and on reaching, at 12
1/4 miles, a bend in the channel, I saw one of the low ridges extending
westward. On ascending it I discovered a range to the south-west,
apparently connected with that already seen to the south, and from the
many beaten paths of the natives it seemed probable that this angle was
the nearest to the hilly country which lay to the south-east.
NATIVE HUTS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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