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
We had now only to make the best of our journey, rising at dawn, and
pulling to seven and often to nine o'clock. I allowed the men an hour from
half-past eleven to half-past twelve, to take their bread and water. This
was our only fare, if I except an occasional wild duck; but these birds
were extremely difficult to kill, and it cost us so much time, that we
seldom endeavoured to procure any. Our dogs had been of no great use, and
were now too weak to have run after anything if they had seen either
kangaroos or emus; and for the fish, the men loathed them, and were either
too indifferent or too much fatigued to set the night-lines. Shoals
frequently impeded us as we proceeded up the river, and we passed some
rapids that called for our whole strength to stem. A light wind assisted
us on two or three of these occasions, and I never failed hoisting the
sail at every fitting opportunity. In some parts the river was extremely
shallow, and the sand-banks of amazing size; and the annoyance of dragging
the boat over these occasional bars, was very great. We passed several
tribes of blacks on the 19th and 20th; but did not stop to communicate
with them.
I believe I have already mentioned that shortly after we first entered the
Murray, flocks of a new paroquet passed over our heads, apparently
emigrating to the N.W. They always kept too high to be fired at, but on
our return, hereabouts, we succeeded in killing one. It made a good
addition to our scanty stock of subjects of natural history. It is
impossible to conceive how few of the feathered tribe frequent these
distant and lonely regions. The common white cockatoo is the most
numerous, and there are also a few pigeons; but other birds descend only
for water, and are soon again upon the wing. Our botanical specimens were
as scanty as our zoological, indeed the expedition may, as regards these
two particulars, almost be said to have been unproductive.
COMPILATION OF THE CHART.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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