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)
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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
The largest pieces of water I could see were Lake Linlithgow and its
companion in the open grassy plains between the range and Mount Napier,
as previously discovered from that hill. Several small and very
picturesque lakes, then as smooth as mirrors, adorned the valley
immediately to the westward of the hill I was upon. They were fringed
with luxuriant shrubs so that it was really painful to me to hurry, as I
was then compelled to do, past spots like these, involving in their
unexplored recesses so much of novelty amidst the most romantic scenery.
The rock consisted of a finely-grained sandstone as in other parts of
that mass. The Grampians of the south consist of three ranges covering a
surface which extends latitudinally 54 miles and longitudinally 20 miles.
The extreme eastern and highest summit is Mount William, in height 4,500
feet above the sea. The northern point is Mount Zero, in latitude 36
degrees 52 minutes 35 seconds South, and the southern is Mount Sturgeon,
in latitude 37 degrees 38 minutes 00 seconds. I here again recognised the
outline of the most northern and elevated range extending from Mount
William to Mount Zero, but it was not so steep on the southern as on the
northern side.
VICTORIA RANGE AND THE SERRA.
From this hill two other ranges branch off to the south; the western
being marked Victoria range on the map, the eastern, the Serra, from its
serrated appearance, the broken outlines they present being highly
ornamental to the fine country around. On the northern slopes of the
range are some forests of fine timber but in general the higher summits
are bare and rocky. The chief source of the Glenelg is between the
Victoria range and the most northern, whence it soon sinks into a deep
glen or ravine, receiving numberless tributaries from other dells
intersecting the adjacent country. A considerable branch of the Glenelg
named by the natives the Wannon has its sources in the eastern and
southern rivulets from these mountains. The waters falling northward
enter the Wimmera, a different river whose estuary has not yet been
explored. Returning towards the camp, on approaching the stream, we met
with one of the most strikingly beautiful species of the common genus
Pultenaea; its narrow heath-like leaves were so closely covered with soft
silky hairs as to have quite a silvery appearance and the branches were
loaded with the heads of yellow and brown flowers now fully open. It
formed a new species of the Proliferous section, allied to Pultenaea
stipularis.*
(*Footnote. P. mollis, Lindley manuscripts; ramulis villosis, foliis
linearibus v. lineari-lanceolatis obtusis v. acuminatis subtus convexis
supra sulcatis sericeo-pilosis capitulis sessilibus longioribus, stipulis
ovato-linearibus acutis glabris badiis, calycibus villosis.)
PARTY IMPEDED BY THE MUD AGAIN, AND A BROKEN AXLE.
September 15.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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