In The
Middle Of The Swamp We Saw A Fine Camp Of Oven Like Huts, Covered With
Tea-Tree Bark.
After crossing some scrubby sandstone ridges, we came to a
sandy creek, up which we proceeded until we found a small water-hole,
which had been filled by the late thunder-storms, where we encamped.
The weather had been very favourable since we left the upper South
Alligator River. It was evident from the appearance of the creek and the
swamps, that the rains had been less abundant here. Cumuli formed here
regularly during the afternoon, with the setting in of the north-west sea
breeze, but dispersed at sunset, and during the first part of the night.
Thunder clouds were seen in the distance, but none reached us. The clear
nights were generally dewy.
The country was most beautifully grassed: and a new species of Crinum,
and several leguminous plants, diversified with their pretty blossoms the
pleasing green of the flats and the forest.
Since the 23rd of November, not a night had passed without long files and
phalanxes of geese taking their flight up and down the river, and they
often passed so low, that the heavy flapping of their wings was
distinctly heard. Whistling ducks, in close flocks, flew generally much
higher, and with great rapidity. No part of the country we had passed,
was so well provided with game as this; and of which we could have easily
obtained an abundance, had not our shot been all expended. The cackling
of geese, the quacking of ducks, the sonorous note of the native
companion, and the noises of black and white cockatoos, and a great
variety of other birds, gave to the country, both night and day, an
extraordinary appearance of animation. We started two large native dogs,
from the small pool at which we encamped; a flock of kites indicated to
me the presence of a larger pool which I chose for our use; and here we
should have been tolerably comfortable, but for a large green-eyed
horse-fly, which was extremely troublesome to us, and which scarcely
allowed our poor animals to feed.
We had a heavy thunder-storm from the north-east, which, however, soon
passed off.
Nov. 29. - We travelled about twelve miles to the northward to lat. 12
degrees 26 minutes 41 seconds, over ironstone and baked sandstone ridges,
densely wooded and often scrubby. The first part of the stage was more
hilly, and intersected by a greater number of creeks, going down to west
and north-west, than the latter part, which was a sandy, level forest of
stringy-bark and Melaleuca gum. The little gooseberry-tree (Coniogeton
arborescens, D.C.) the leguminous Ironbark, a smooth, broad-leaved
Terminalia, Calythrix, and the apple-gum, were plentiful. Livistona
inermis, R. Br. grew from twenty to thirty feet high, with a very slender
stem and small crown, and formed large groves in the stringy-bark forest.
A grass, well known at the Hunter by its scent resembling that of crushed
ants, was here scentless; a little plant, with large, white, tubular,
sweet-scented flowers, grew sociably in the forest, and received the name
of "native primrose;" a species of Commelyna, and a prostrate malvaceous
plant with red flowers, and a species of Oxystelma, contributed by their
beauty and variety to render the country interesting.
Nov. 30. - The lower part of the creek on which we were encamped was
covered with a thicket of Pandanus; but its upper part was surrounded by
groves of the Livistona palm. As our horses had been driven far from the
camp by the grey horse-fly and by a large brown fly with green eyes,
which annoyed us particularly before sunset, and shortly after sunrise,
we had to wait a long time for them, and employed ourselves, in the
meanwhile, with cutting and eating the tops of Livistona. Many were in
blossom, others were in fruit; the latter is an oblong little stone fruit
of very bitter taste. Only the lowest part of the young shoots is
eatable, the remainder being too bitter. I think they affected the bowels
even more than the shoots of the Corypha palm.
We made a short Sunday stage through a fine forest, in which Livistona
became more and more frequent. We crossed several creeks going to the
westward; the country became more hilly, and we followed a large creek
with a good supply of rainwater, until it turned too much to the
westward, when we encamped. The clear night enabled me to make my
latitude, by an observation of Castor, to be 12 degrees 21 minutes 49
seconds. We had accomplished about five miles to the northward.
We saw two emus, and Charley was fortunate enough to shoot one of them;
it was the fattest we had met with round the gulf. During the clear, dewy
night, flocks of geese and ducks passed from the west to the north-east,
and I anticipated that the next stage would bring us again to large
swamps. The bed of the creek on which we encamped was composed of
granitic rock.
CHAPTER XV
JOY AT MEETING NATIVES SPEAKING SOME ENGLISH - THEY ARE VERY
FRIENDLY - ALLAMURR - DISCERNMENT OF NATIVE SINCERITY - EAST ALLIGATOR
RIVER - CLOUDS OF DUST MISTAKEN FOR SMOKE - IMPATIENCE TO REACH THE END OF
THE JOURNEY - NATIVES STILL MORE INTELLIGENT - NYUALL - BUFFALOES; SOURCE
FROM WHICH THEY SPRUNG - NATIVE GUIDES ENGAGED; BUT THEY DESERT US - MOUNT
MORRIS BAY - RAFFLES BAY - LEAVE THE PACKHORSE AND BULLOCK BEHIND - BILL
WHITE - ARRIVE AT PORT ESSINGTON - VOYAGE TO SYDNEY.
Dec. 1. - We travelled about eleven or twelve miles to the northward, for
the greater part through forest land, large tracts of which were occupied
solely by Livistona. A species of Acacia and stringy-bark saplings formed
a thick underwood. The open lawns were adorned by various plants, amongst
which we noticed a species of Drosera, with white and red blossoms? a
Mitrasacme; a narrow-leaved Ruellia, the white primrose, the red
prostrate malvaceous plant, a low shrubby Pleurandra, and an orchideous
plant - one of the few representatives of this family in the Australian
tropics; the most interesting, however, was a prostrate Grevillea, with
oblong smooth leaves, and with thyrsi of fine scarlet flowers; which I
consider to be Grevillea Goodii, R. Br.
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