Journal of an Overland Expedition in Australia. Ludwig Leichhardt
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but Senecios and Sonchus (Sowthistle), which our horses greedily snatched as they waded through them. The soil is of a dark colour, very rich, but mild; and the rock below is basaltic. Kangaroos were feeding on the plains along the scrub; and Charley fired unsuccessfully at a fine "old man." I saw one emu, and Charley a drove of ten more. The country was remarkably rich in various kinds of game; and I was very sorry that we were not better sportsmen, to avail ourselves of so favourable a circumstance. We found a passage for our bullocks at the west side of the valley along which we had come down; the ascent was steep, but practicable. We followed the spur up to the principal range, where we found some difficulty in heading some steep gullies, which come up to the highest crest of the mountains. After some tiresome riding, I was fortunate enough to hit the head of the creek on which our party was encamped; and, following it down--over loose rocks, large boulders, and occasional steep falls--accompanied by my excellent little horse, which willingly followed wherever I led, I came into a more open country; and the report of a gun gave me the pleasing assurance that our camp was at no great distance. My Blackfellow quitted me on the range, as he had done before, on several similar occasions; and it was too evident that I could not rely upon him in times of difficulty and danger. Within the scrub on the range, we found five or six huts, lately constructed, of the natives; they come here probably to find honey, and to catch rock-wallabies, which are very numerous in the sandstone gullies. In the gully which I descended, a shrub with dark-green leaves was tolerably frequent; its red berries, containing one or two seeds, were about the size of a cherry, and very good eating when ripe. The new Grevillea, before mentioned, was also found here growing on a sandy soil; and a species of Clematis tied the shrubs into an almost impenetrable maze. The arborescent Zamia was as frequent here as on the slopes and flat tops of the basaltic mountains; it grows from six to ten feet high, and even higher, and is about a foot in diameter; and often, its dark scaly trunk, borne to the ground by the winds, raises its fine head like a reclining man.
There was a thunder-storm to the south-east and east on the 10th December. These thunder-storms are generally very local, belonging to distant valleys and ranges. Much rain had fallen at the foot of the range, but we had very little of it. Several of my companions suffered by eating too much of the cabbage-palm. The Blackfellows will doubtless wonder why so many noble trees had been felled here. One of our kangaroo-dogs followed a kangaroo, and did not return; a severe loss, as we have only one left out of five, and this one is young and diseased. Our little terrier keeps very well.
Dec. 12--After a clear night, the morning was misty, with a wall of clouds to the westward; at nine o'clock it cleared up, and loose cumuli passed over from the east; at eleven o'clock all clouds had disappeared, and a cool breeze set in from the northward. Charley did not succeed in bringing in the horses and cattle sufficiently early for starting on the long and difficult passage over the range. Our meat was all consumed; but we wished to reserve our bullocks for Christmas, which was, in every one of us, so intimately associated with recollections of happy days and merriment, that I was determined to make the coming season as merry as our circumstances permitted. This decision being final, every one cheerfully submitted to a small allowance, and did his best to procure game. Our latitude was 24 degrees 43 minutes.
Dec. 13.--We travelled along the spur at the west and south-west side of Erythrina creek, at which we had been encamped; and, after having headed the whole system of its gullies--keeping to the right along the main range for about three miles, we came to the spur on which I and Charley had ascended on our return, and which had a general direction to the north-west. When we arrived at the foot of the range, our cattle and horses were so jaded, and the water-hole still so far off, that I encamped here, more especially as the feed was young and rich, and as I had hopes of obtaining water by digging into the sand which filled the upper part of the valley. In this, however, I did not succeed; for, upon digging about three feet deep, I came on a layer of stiff clay very hard and dry. Fortunately, however, a thunder-storm came on towards the evening, which supplied our cattle as well as ourselves with water. This was the only time we encamped without a certainty of water, during our journey from Jimba to the head of the gulf, which occupied ten months. The whole night was showery, the wind and clouds coming from all directions.
Dec. 14.--We reached the water-holes I had discovered three days previous. Our cattle were very thirsty, notwithstanding the late rain, and they rushed into the water as soon as they got sight of it.
The hills, at the foot of which we are encamped, are composed of whinstone (basalt). Pebbles of conglomerate, of flint, and of quartz deeply coloured with iron, are, however, very frequent on the slopes. It is remarkable that that part of the range which is composed of basalt, is a fine open forest, whereas the basaltic hills of the large valley are covered with dense scrub. The Myal was frequent; and the fruit of the small lemon-tree was ripe.
I followed the watercourse which connects the water-holes on which we encamped, and met every where with Bricklow scrub. Mr. Gilbert ascended the hills, and stated that the whole valley to the westward appeared like an immense sea of scrub.
A thunder-storm was forming to the north-west, but was probably deflected by the ranges.
Dec. 15.--Last night we had two thunder-storms; one rose in the west, and turned to the northward, following the Christmas Ranges; the other rose in the south, and turned to the east, probably attracted by Expedition Range. Still following the watercourse, we entered, after about four miles travelling, into the scrub. The watercourse was soon lost in the level ground, and water-holes appeared every where; the general direction of the waters seemed to be to the north-west. Four miles farther we came to a piece of open forest at the foot of a hill, which was covered with ironstone-pebbles. Here we encamped without water; but, having passed good water-holes not four miles distant, I sent Mr. Calvert and Brown to fetch some, whilst I and Charley went forward to examine the country. On my way to some ranges which I had seen to the eastward, I fell in with a dry watercourse, and, following it down for about half a mile from the camp, discovered a well-filled water-hole. The watercourse was found to join a creek with a deep and very wide bed, but dry. Muscle-shells strewed in every direction, and other appearances, indicated that, during the wet season, the whole country must be very swampy. The course of the creek was to the N. N. W., and it is joined by watercourses from the right and left; all now quite dry. After having followed the creek for about twelve miles, until sunset, without coming to the end of the scrub through which it trended, we were compelled to retrace our steps; in attempting which my companion, Charley, lost the track, but my good little horse, Jim Crow, guided us to the camp, which we reached about eleven o'clock. Mr. Calvert and Brown had not yet returned; although the report of their guns had been heard several times. The night was extremely cold, notwithstanding we were encamped under the shelter of trees: and it was therefore evident that we were at a considerable elevation above the level of the sea. The Box-tree of Jimba-flats, the Bricklow--in short, the whole vegetation of the scrubby country, west of Darling Downs, were still around us; and the Moreton Bay ash (a species of Eucalyptus)--which I had met with, throughout the Moreton Bay district, from the sea coast of the Nynga Nyngas to Darling Downs--was here also very plentiful.
Dec. 16.--Our cattle and our horses, with the exception of those we had used the night before, had strayed in search of water; but Charley found them on the sow-thistle plains, beyond our last camp. Messrs. Calvert, Murphy, and Brown, came in early this morning; they had lost their way in the dark, in consequence of remaining too long at the water-hole. They informed me that they had passed the night on an open piece of forest ground along a creek. This intelligence induced me to examine the locality: I therefore went with Brown, and found the creek, with a deep sandy, but dry bed, full of reeds; its direction being from south by west to north by east. I followed it up about eight miles, when the scrub receded from its left bank, and a fine open extensive flat stretched to the westward. I looked into the Casuarina thickets which occasionally fringed its bank, in search of water; but found none. I was frequently on the point of returning, but, induced by the presence of reeds, continued the search, until the scrub again approached the right side of the creek; and, in one of those chains of ponds which almost invariably exist at the outside of these scrubs, a small pool of water was found. This gave me fresh confidence, and I was eagerly examining the creek, when Brown exclaimed, "Plenty of water, sir! plenty of water!" and a magnificent lagoon, surrounded by a rich belt of reeds, lay before us. The natives must have been at this spot some