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
HEAVY RAIN.
April 2.
The rain continued through the night and this morning it fell rather
heavily, so that enough of water could be gathered from the surface of
the plains near our camp to preclude the necessity for our having
recourse to the muddy pool. The barometer began to rise slowly from seven
in the morning, when it had reached its minimum; but the weather
continued hazy, with drizzling rain (from the south-west) until four
o'clock, when the clouds slowly drew up. The plains were not yet at all
saturated, although become too soft for our carts. The evening was
cloudy, but by ten o'clock the state of the barometer was such as to
leave little doubt about the return of fair weather. We this day found in
the woods to the northward a most beautiful species of Trichinium, with
spiky feathered pale yellow flowers, sometimes as much as six inches
long.*
(*Footnote. Tr. nobile, Lindley manuscripts; foliis caulinis obovatis
cuspidatis subundulatis ramisque corymbosis angulatis glabris, spica
cylindracea: rachi lanata, calycis laciniis 3 acutis 2 retusis, bracteis
puberulis. Differs from Tr. densum, Cunningham in the bracts not being
villous at the base, and from T. macrocephalum, R. Br. in having much
larger flowers, which are yellow not lilac, and in three of the segments
of the calyx being acute.)
ASCEND MOUNT ALLAN.
April 3.
Thick fog in the morning. The day being Sunday the party remained in the
camp; but I do not think we could have left it from the soft state of the
plains, however desirable it might have been to proceed. After twelve I
rode to Wollar (Mount Allan) with the theodolite, and from its summit I
intersected most of the hills seen from Mounts Amyot and Cunningham. A
small wart on the eastern horizon, very distant yet conspicuous, I found
to be Mount Juson, the hill on which I had stood with the brother of the
botanist whose name had been given to this hill by Mr. Oxley.
The sameness in the surface of this country is apparently owing to the
simplicity of its geological composition. All the hills I ascended below
the junction of Byrne's creek consist of ferruginous sandstone, similar
to that which constitutes all the hills I saw on, and even beyond, the
Darling.
On passing to and from Mount Allan we crossed, at three-quarters of a
mile from the camp, Goobang creek, the bed of which exactly resembles
that of the Bogan. The remains of drifted weeds on the trees and the
uniformity of its channel showed that it is a considerable tributary of
the Lachlan. At length the stars appeared in the evening, and I could
once more see my unerring guides, the faithful Little Dog, and the mighty
Hercules,* whereby our latitude seemed to be 33 degrees 8 minutes 55
seconds South.
(*Footnote. Procyon, in Canis Minor and Regulus in Leo. The latter being
also called Hercules and Cor Leonis.)
NATIVES FROM THE BOGAN.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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