Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia — Volume 2Sturt, Charles
History
Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia — Volume 2
Sturt, Charles
New South Wales -- Discovery and exploration; Sturt, Charles, 1795-1869
The banks of the Murray did not undergo any immediate change as we
proceeded. We noticed that the country had, at some time, been subject
to extensive inundation, and was, beyond doubt, of alluvial formation.
We passed the mouths of several large creeks that came from the north
and N.W., and the country in those directions seemed to be much
intersected by water-courses; while to the south it was extremely low.
Having descended several minor rapids, I greatly regretted that we had
no barometer to ascertain the actual dip of the interior. I computed,
however, that we were not more than from eighty to ninety feet above
the level of the sea. We found the channel of the Murray much
encumbered with timber, and noticed some banks of sand that were of
unusual size, and equalled the largest accumulations of it on the sea
shore, both in extent and solidity.
STATE OF PROVISIONS.
We would gladly have fired into the flights of wild fowl that winged
their way over us, for we, about this time, began to feel the
consequences of the disaster that befell us in the Morumbidgee. The
fresh water having got mixed with the brine in the meat casks, the
greater part of our salt provisions had got spoiled, so that we were
obliged to be extremely economical in the expenditure of what remained,
as we knew not to what straits we might be driven. It will naturally be
asked why we did not procure fish? The answer is easy. The men had
caught many in the Morumbidgee, and on our first navigation of the
Murray, but whether it was that they had disagreed with them, or that
their appetites were palled, or that they were too fatigued after the
labour of the day to set the lines, they did not appear to care about
them. The only fish we could take was the common cod or perch; and,
without sauce or butter, it is insipid enough. We occasionally
exchanged pieces of iron-hoop for two other kinds of fish, the one a
bream, the other a barbel, with the natives, and the eagerness with
which they met our advances to barter, is a strong proof of their
natural disposition towards this first step in civilization.
DEXTERITY OF NATIVES IN FISHING.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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