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
We proceeded from this camp towards the southern extremity of Mount
Cunningham, under which a small branch of the Lachlan passes so close
that the party was occupied an hour and a half in removing rocks to open
a passage for the carts. We then got into an open country in which we
soon saw the same dry branch of the Lachlan before us; but we turned more
to the north-west until we reached a slightly undulated surface. No
branch of the river extends to the northward of Mount Cunningham as shown
on Mr. Oxley's map; but a small tributary watercourse, then dry, skirts
the eastern side of the hill, and enters that branch of the Lachlan which
we were upon.
Yesterday and this day had been so excessively hot (82 degrees in the
shade) that I confidently anticipated rain, especially when the sky
became cloudy to the westward, while the wind blew steadily from the
opposite quarter. A dense body of vapour in the shape of stratus, or fall
cloud of the meteorologist, was at the same time stretching eastward
along the distant horizon on both sides of us. After crossing some sound,
open plains of stiff clay, guided by the natives, we gained an extensive
pond of muddy water and encamped on a hill of red sand on its northern
bank, and under shelter of a grove of callitris trees.
RAIN.
The wind now began to blow and the sky, to my great delight, being at
length overcast, promised rain enough to fill the streams and waterholes:
at twilight it began to come down. In the woods we passed through this
day we found a curious willow-like acacia with the leaves slightly
covered with bloom, and sprinkled on the underside with numerous reddish
minute drops of resin.* The Pittosporum angustifolium we also recognised
here, loaded with its singular orange-coloured bivalved fruit.
(*Footnote. This is allied in some respects to A. verniciflua and
exudans, but is a very distinct and well-marked species. A. salicina,
Lindley manuscripts; glaucescens, ramulis angulatis, phyllodiis
divaricatis lineari et oblongo-lanceolatis utrinque angustatis
obtusissimis uninerviis venulis pinnatis: ipso apice glandulosis subtus
resinoso-punctatis, capitulis 3-5 racemosis phyllodiis triplo
brevioribus.)
March 31.
It rained during the night and this morning the sky seemed as if it would
continue; the mercury in the barometer also falling, we halted. On a dry
sandhill, with wood and water at hand, we were well prepared to await the
results of a flood; some good grass also was found for the cattle on firm
ground at the distance of about two miles.
GOOBANG CREEK.
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