Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia — CompleteSturt, Charles
History
Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia — Complete
Sturt, Charles
New South Wales -- Discovery and exploration; Sturt, Charles, 1795-1869
The female and the kid are of
a light mouse-colour. Wild turkeys abound on this part of the Morumbidgee,
but with the exception of a few terns, which are found hovering over the
lagoons, no new birds had as yet been procured; and the only plant that
enriched our collection, was an unknown metrosideros. In crossing the
extremity of the range, the wheels of the dray sunk deep into a yielding
and coarse sandy soil, of decomposed granite, on which forest-grass
prevailed in tufts, which, being far apart, made the ground uneven, and
caused the animals to trip. We rose at one time sufficiently high to
obtain an extensive view, and had our opinions confirmed as to the level
nature of the country we were so rapidly approaching. From the N. to
the W.S.W. the eye wandered over a wooded and unbroken interior, if I
except a solitary double hill that rose in the midst of it, bearing
S. 82 degrees W. distant 12 miles, and another singular elevation that
bore S. 32 degrees W. called by the natives, Kengal. The appearance to the
E.S.E. was still that of a mountainous country, while from the N.E., the
hills gradually decrease in height, until lost in the darkness of
surrounding objects to the northward. We did not travel this day more than
13 miles on a W. by N. course. The Morumbidgee, where we struck it, by its
increased size, kept alive our anticipations of its ultimately leading us
to some important point. The partial rains that had fallen while we were
on its upper branch, had swollen it considerably, and it now rolled along
a vast body of water at the rate of three miles an hour, preserving a
medium width of 150 feet; its banks retaining a height far above the usual
level of the stream. A traveller who had never before descended into the
interior of New Holland, would have spurned the idea of such a river
terminating in marshes; but with the experience of the former journey,
strong as hope was within my breast, I still feared it might lose itself
in the vast flat upon which we could scarcely be said to have yet entered.
The country was indeed taking up more and more every day the features of
the N.W. interior. Cypresses were observed upon the minor ridges, and the
soil near the river, although still rich, and certainly more extensive
than above, was occasionally mixed with sand, and scattered over with the
claws of crayfish and shells, indicating its greater liability to be
flooded; nor indeed could I entertain a doubt that the river had laid a
great part of the levels around us under water long after it found that
channel in which nature intended ultimately to confine it. We killed
another fine red kangaroo in the early part of the day, in galloping after
which I got a heavy fall.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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