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
The day was hot and we killed several large snakes of the species eaten
by the natives. I observed that our guides looked at the colour of the
belly when in any doubt about the sort they preferred; these were
white-bellied, whereas the belly of a very fierce one with a large head,
of which Piper and the others seemed much afraid, was yellow. On cutting
this snake open two young quails were found within: one of them not being
quite dead. The country we crossed during the early part of the day was
at least as fine as that we had left. We passed alternately through
strips of forest and over open flats well watered, the streams flowing
southward; and at nine miles we crossed a large stream also flowing in
that direction: all these being evidently tributaries to that on which we
had been encamped. Beyond the greater stream, where we last crossed it,
the country presented more of the mountain character, but good strong
grass grew among the trees, which consisted of box and lofty bluegum.
After making out upwards of eleven miles, we encamped in a valley where
water lodged in holes and where we found also abundance of grass. We were
fast approaching those summits which had guided me in my route from Mount
Cole, then more than fifty miles behind us. Like that mountain these
heights also belonged to a lofty range, and like it were beside a very
low part of it, through which I hoped to effect a passage. Leaving the
party to encamp I proceeded forward in search of the hill I had so long
seen before me, and I found that the hills immediately beyond our camp
were part of the dividing range and broken into deep ravines on the
eastern side. Pursuing the connection between them and the still higher
summits on the north-east, I came at length upon an open valley enclosed
by hills very lightly wooded. This change was evidently owing to a
difference in the rock which was a fine-grained granite, whereas the
hills we had recently crossed belonged chiefly to the volcanic class of
rocks, with the exception of the range I had traversed that evening in my
way from the camp, which consisted of ferruginous sandstone. With the
change of rock a difference was also obvious in the shape of the hills,
the quantity and quality of the water, and the character of the trees.
The hills presented a bold sweeping outline and were no longer broken by
sharp-edged strata but crowned with large round masses of rock. Running
water was gushing from every hollow in much greater abundance than
elsewhere; and lastly the timber, which on the other ranges consisted
chiefly of ironbark and stringybark, now presented the shining bark of
the bluegum or yarra and the grey hue of the box. The Anthisteria
australis, a grass which seems to delight in a granitic soil, also
appeared in great abundance, and we also found the aromatic tea, Tasmania
aromatica, which represents in New Holland the winter's bark of the
southern extremity of South America. The leaves and bark of this tree
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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