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 — John Shaqi
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
Still I saw nothing on the horizon in the direction of his Mount Granard,
and in no other any hill of magnitude, except in the quarter whence I
came, where I still discerned my old friends Marga and Nangar, with
Nyororong and Berabidjal, high hills more to the southward.
Mount Cunningham consists of ferruginous sandstone. The sun had reached
the horizon before I left the summit, which I did not until I had
obtained an angle on every visible point. We arrived at the camp soon
after seven o'clock. Latitude by an observation of Cor Leonis 33 degrees
15 minutes 27 seconds South.
MR. OXLEY'S TREE.
March 30.
I ascertained accidentally this morning that we were abreast of the spot
where Mr. Oxley left the Lachlan and proceeded southward. This I learnt
from a marked tree which a native pointed out to me distant about 250
yards south from our camp, on the opposite side of a branch of the river.
On this tree were still legible the names of Mr. Oxley and Mr. Evans; and
although the inscription had been there nineteen years the tree seemed
still in full vigour; nor could its girth have altered much, judging from
the letters which were still as sharp as when first cut, only the bark
having overgrown part of them had been recently cleared away a little as
if to render the letters more legible. I endeavoured to preserve still
longer an inscription which had withstood the fires of the bush and the
tomahawks of the natives for such a length of time by making a drawing of
it as it then appeared.
By Mr. Oxley's journal we learn that where the river formed two branches
he, on the 17th of May, 1817, hauled up his boats, and on the following
day commenced his intended journey towards the south-east. But our
latitudes also assisted us in verifying the spot. Mr. Oxley made the
latitude of his camp (doubtless near the tree) 33 degrees 15 minutes 34
seconds South which gives a difference of seven seconds for the 250 yards
between the tree and my camp. The variation of the needle Mr. Oxley found
to be here, in 1817, 7 degrees 0 minutes 8 seconds East and I had made it
at the last camp (Merimbah) 8 degrees 54 minutes 15 seconds East, or
nearly two degrees more, in a lapse of 19 years. The longitude of this
point as now ascertained by trigonometrical measurement from Parramatta
was 147 degrees 33 minutes 50 seconds East, or 17 minutes 50 seconds
(equal on this parallel to 17 1/4 miles) nearer to Sydney than it is laid
down by Mr. Oxley.
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