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 two places the banks are so low that in high floods the water must
flow over them to the westward and supply, as I supposed, Campbell's
lake, called Goorongully, and that to the north-east of Regent's lake.
Upon the whole it appeared that the trap which originally elevated the
western shore had either partially subsided, or that it was connected
with a crater or cavity of which the only vestige is this lake. The
calcareous conglomerate was unlike any rock I had seen elsewhere,
consisting in part of a tuff resembling the matrix of the fossil bones
found in limestone fissures. It is also worthy of notice that it appears
in some low undulations which extend from the lake to the river, and that
the channel conveying the waters to the lake lies in a hollow between
them.
NATIVES THERE.
On first approaching the lake we saw the natives in the midst of the
water, gathering the mussels (unio). I sent Piper forward to tell them
who we were, and thus, if possible, prevent any alarm at our appearance.
It began to rain heavily as we rode round; and although detached parties
of gins on the south shore had taken fright, left their huts and run to
the main camp, I was glad to find, when we rode up, that they remained
quietly there, under cover from the heavy rain. These huts or gunyas
consisted of a few green boughs which had just been put up for shelter
from the rain then falling. The tribe consisted of about a hundred.
WOMEN.
The females and children were in huts at some distance from those of the
men. A great number sat huddled together and cowered down under each
gunya, their skinny limbs being so folded before their bodies that the
head rested upon the knees. Among the faces were some which, being
hideously painted white (the usual badge of mourning) grinned horribly;
and the whole was so characteristic a specimen of life among the
aborigines that the heavy rain did not prevent me from making a sketch.
While I was thus employed the natives very hospitably made a fire in a
vacant gunya, evidently for the purpose of warming poor Barney, our
guide, who seemed miserably cold, having no covering except a jacket,
thoroughly wet.
MEN.
The men were in general strong, healthy, and muscular, and among them was
one who measured six feet four inches, as we afterwards ascertained at
our camp. My chief object in visiting the lake was to cultivate a good
understanding with these natives in the hopes that one of them might be
induced to accompany me down the Lachlan. The facility with which Piper,
then at a distance of 200 miles from his native place, Bathurst,
conversed with these people showed that their dialects are not so varied
as is commonly believed; and I had little doubt that he would be
understood, even on the banks of the Darling.
THEIR ACCOUNT OF THE COUNTRY LOWER DOWN. OOLAWAMBILOA.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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