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 passed some considerable plains, lying to the eastward of the creek, on
parts of which the grass, though growing in tufts, was of luxuriant
growth. They were, however, more generally covered with salsola and
rhagodia, and totally destitute of other vegetation, the soil upon them
being a red sandy loam. The paths across the plains, which varied in
breadth from three to eight miles, were numerous; but they had not been
recently trodden. The creek continued to have a thick brush of casuarina
and acacia near it, to the westward of which there was a rising open
forest track; the timber upon it being chiefly box, cypress, and the
acacia longifolia. It was most probably connected with New Year's Range,
those elevations being about thirty miles distant. It terminated in some
gentle hills which, though covered in places with acacia shrub, were
sufficiently open to afford an extensive view. From their summit Oxley's
Table Land, towards which we had been gradually working our way, was
distinctly visible, distant about twenty miles, and bearing by compass
W. by S. On descending from these hills (called the Pink Hills, from the
colour of a flower upon them) which were scattered over with fragments of
slaty quartz, we traversed a box flat, apparently subject to overflow,
having a barren sandy scrub to its left. I had desired the men to preserve
a W.N.W. direction, on leaving them, supposing that that course would have
kept them near the creek; but, on overtaking the party, I found that they
had wandered completely away from it. The fact was, that the creek had
taken a sudden bend to the eastward of N. and had thus thrown them out.
It was with some difficulty that we regained it before sunset; and we were
at length obliged to stop for the night at a small plain, about a quarter
of a mile short of it, but we had the satisfaction of having excellent
feed for the animals.
OXLEY'S TABLE LAND.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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