Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia — Volume ISturt, Charles
History
Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia — Volume I
Sturt, Charles
New South Wales -- Discovery and exploration; Sturt, Charles, 1795-1869
Our experience of the nature of the country to the southward, and the
westward, was such as to deter us from risking anything, by taking such
a direction as was most agreeable to our views. Nothing remained to us
but to follow the creek, or to retreat; and as we could only be induced
to adopt the last measure when every other expedient should have
failed, we determined on pursuing our original plan, of tracing New
Year's Creek as far as practicable.
DESCRIPTION OF OXLEY'S TABLE LAND.
Oxley's Table Land is situated in lat. 29 degrees 57 minutes 30
seconds, and in E. long. 145 degrees 43 minutes 30 seconds, the mean
variation being 6.32 easterly. It consists of two hills that appear to
have been rent asunder by some convulsion of nature, since the passage
between them is narrow and their inner faces are equally perpendicular.
The hill which I have named after the late Surveyor-general, is steep
on all sides; but the other gradually declines from the south, and at
length loses itself in a large plain that extends to the north. It is
from four to five miles in length, and is picturesque in appearance,
and lightly wooded. A few cypresses were growing on Oxley's Table Land;
but it had, otherwise, very little timber upon its summit. Both hills
are of sandstone formation, and there are some hollows upon the last
that deserve particular notice. They have the appearance of having been
formed by eddies of water, being deeper in the centre than at any other
part, and contain fragments and slabs of sandstone of various size and
breadth, without a particle of soil or of sand between them. It is to
be observed that the edges of these slabs, which were perfect
parallelograms, were unbroken, and that they were as clean as if they
had only just been turned out of the hand of the mason. We counted
thirteen of these hollows in one spot about twenty-five feet in
diameter, but they are without doubt of periodical formation, since a
single hollow was observed lower than the summit of the hill upon its
south extremity, that had evidently long been exposed to the action of
the atmosphere, and had a general coating of moss over it.
CONTINUE THE JOURNEY; DOWN NEW YEAR'S CREEK.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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