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
At eight miles we came to a chain of deep ponds which seemed a tributary
to some greater water, as indicated by the yarra trees and flats before
us, apparently covered with verdure. On advancing into these flats
however we found them soft and swampy, being so very wet and so covered
with dead trees that we were obliged to retrace our steps and turn
eastward, thus crossing to a higher bank altogether east of the chain of
ponds; and along this we proceeded without seeing any further continuance
of the deep serpentine channel, full of water, which appeared to
terminate there. That woody swamp seemed very extensive and was the only
instance met with in the course of our travels of the termination of a
stream in a swamp, although I understood subsequently that this was the
fate of various minor brooks descending towards that part of the interior
plains. We found there a curious black-headed grass which proved to be of
the carex genus. At 11 1/2 miles we arrived at a running stream, its
course being northward; and at 15 1/2 miles we reached a very fine little
rivulet flowing between grassy banks twenty-five feet high, the soil
consisting of a red earth similar to that on the interior plains and the
banks of the Murray.
MOUNT TRAFALGAR. RUGGED COUNTRY STILL BEFORE US.
October 21.
At five miles we were abreast of a pointed hill which I ascended and
named Mount Trafalgar in honour of that memorable day. From it I obtained
a view of the country before us, and I perceived in the direction of our
intended route some high cone-shaped hills. A ridge extended from them to
the westward, but its height seemed gradually to diminish in that
direction, although it presented two very abrupt and remarkable hills
whose steepest side being towards the north overlooked as I supposed the
spacious basin of the Murrumbidgee. One solitary mount appeared much
farther to the westward and was also steep-sided towards the north. On
descending I shaped my course towards the hollow where the ridge could be
most easily crossed. At 8 3/4 miles we met with some good ponds of water
and beyond them the winding channel of a smaller watercourse falling
southward from the range already mentioned. After crossing and recrossing
this channel and its various branches we at length gained the crest of
the range, and I directed the party to halt while I hastened to a conical
summit on the left, apparently the highest and most pointed of those
previously observed. It consisted of syenite and from it I obtained a
very extensive view to the northward, but yet could not see any
favourable opening in the direction in which I wished to reach the
Murrumbidgee: on the contrary as we reduced our distance from home the
obstacles to our reaching it seemed to increase.
PROVISIONS NEARLY EXHAUSTED.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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