- Last night we were busily employed in cutting up and drying
our two emus, in which operation we were favoured by a slight breeze from
the south-east.
As we had no fat nor emu oil to fry the meat with, I
allowed a sufficient quantity of meat to be left on the bones, which made
it worth while to grill them; and we enjoyed a most beautiful moonlight
night over a well grilled emu bone with so much satisfaction, that a
frequenter of the Restaurants of the Palais Royal would have been
doubtful whether to pity or envy us.
We travelled to the north-west, because, whenever I kept a westerly
course, I had almost always to follow creeks down to the northward to
obtain water; and, notwithstanding a north-west course, had, on previous
occasions, generally brought us to salt-water.
For the first three miles, we passed several plains, and crossed a creek
in which we recognised a Casuarina, which tree we had not seen since we
left the Mitchell. We then came to a river from thirty to forty yards
broad, and apparently very deep; the water was very soft, but not
brackish, although affected by the tide, which caused it to rise about
two feet. A narrow belt of brush, with drooping tea-trees, the Corypha
palm, the Pandanus, and Sarcocephalus, grew along the water's edge. The
box, the broad-leaved Terminalia, and the Inga moniliformis (articulate
podded Acacia), covered the gullies which came down from the plains, and
the flats along the river.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 356 of 524
Words from 95892 to 96152
of 141354
