Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, Volume 2: 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 2: 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
Pursuing the bearing of 193 degrees we crossed, at three miles from the
camp, a deep creek similar to that on which it was placed; and the first
adventure of the morning occurred here. The fordable place was so narrow
that the horse of one of the party plunged into the deep water with its
rider who, while the animal was swimming, incautiously pulled the bridle
and of course overturned it, so that they parted company in the water,
the horse reaching one bank, the rider the other. The latter, who was my
botanical collector Richardson, took his soaking on a cold frosty morning
so philosophically, talking to his comrades as he made his way to the
bank, partly swimming, partly floating on two huge portfolios, that I
gave his name to the creek, the better to reconcile him to his wet
jacket. We entered soon after upon one of the finest tracts of grassy
forest land we had ever seen. The whole country recently crossed was
good, but this was far better, having several broad and deep ponds, or
small lakes, in the woods, and all full of the clearest water. At eight
miles I perceived a forest-hill on my left (or to the eastward) and the
country before us was so open, sloping and green, that I felt certain we
were approaching a river; and we soon came upon one, which was full,
flowing and thirty feet wide, being broader than the Yarrayne but not so
uniformly deep. Unlike the latter river, reeds grew about its margin in
some places, and its banks, though grassy and fifteen feet high, were
neither so steep as those of the Yarrayne, nor so closely shut together.
CROSS A FINE STREAM FLOWING IN THREE SEPARATE CHANNELS.
We swam our horses across, but our progress had scarcely commenced again
on the other side when it was impeded by another similar stream or
channel. In this we managed, with Piper's assistance, to find a ford but,
at less than a quarter of a mile, we met a third channel, more resembling
the first in the height of its banks and velocity of the current, and
also from its flowing amongst bushes. This we likewise forded, and
immediately after we ascended a piece of rising ground which convinced me
that we had at length crossed all the branches of that remarkable river.
It is probable we came upon it where it received the waters of
tributaries, and some of these channels might be such.
A RIDGE OF POOR SANDY SOIL.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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