RIVER - CRYSTAL BROOK - FLINDERS
RANGE - THE DEEP SPRING - MYALL PONDS - ROCKY WATER HOLES - DRY
WATERCOURSE - REACH THE DEPOT NEAR MOUNT ARDEN - PREPARE FOR LEAVING THE
PARTY - BLACK SWANS PASS TO THE NORTH - ARRIVAL OF THE WATERWITCH.
During the night the frost had been so severe, that we were obliged to
wait a little this morning for the sun to thaw the tent and tarpaulins
before they would bend to fold up. After starting, we proceeded across a
high barren open country, for about three miles on a W. N. W. course,
passing close under a peak connected with Campbell's range, which I named
Spring Hill, from the circumstance of a fine spring of water being found
about half way up it.
Not far from the spring I discovered a poor emaciated native, entirely
alone, without either food or fire, and evidently left by his tribe to
perish there; he was a very aged man, and from hardship and want was
reduced to a mere skeleton, how long he had been on the spot where we
found him I had no means of ascertaining, but probably for some time, as
life appeared to be fast ebbing away; he seemed almost unconscious of our
presence, and stared upon us with a vacant unmeaning gaze. The pleasures
or sorrows of life were for ever over with him: his case was far beyond
the reach of human aid, and the probability is that he died a very few
hours after we left him.
Such is the fate of the aged and helpless in savage life, nor can we
wonder that it should be so, since self-preservation is the first law of
nature, and the wandering native who has to travel always over a great
extent of ground to seek for his daily food, could not obtain enough to
support his existence, if obliged to remain with the old or the sick, or
if impeded by the incumbrance of carrying them with him; still I felt
grieved for the poor old man we had left behind us, and it was long
before I could drive away his image from my mind, or repress the
melancholy train of thoughts that the circumstance had called forth.
From the summit of Spring Hill, I observed extensive plains to the N. W.
skirted both on their eastern and western sides, by open hills, whilst to
the N. W. and N. E. the ranges were high, and apparently terminated in
both directions by peaked summits on their eastern extremes; a little
south of west the waters of Spencer's Gulf were distinctly visible, and
the smokes ascending from the fires of the natives, were seen in many
directions among the hills. After passing Spring Hill, we crossed some
rich and extensive plains, stretching far away to the northward, and
taking a nearly north and south direction under Campbell's range; in the
upper part of these plains is the deep bed of a watercourse with water in
it all the year round, and opposite to which, in lat. 33 degrees 14
minutes S, is a practicable pass for drays through Campbell's range, to
the grassy country to the eastward.
June 27. - In crossing the southern extremity of these large plains, we
came suddenly upon a small party of natives engaged in digging yams of
which the plains were full; they were so intent upon their occupation
that we were close to them before they were aware of our presence; when
they saw us they appeared to be surprised and alarmed, and endeavoured to
steal off as rapidly as they could without fairly taking to their heels,
for they were evidently either unwilling or afraid to run; finding that
we did not molest them they halted, and informed us by signs that we
should soon come to water, in the direction we were going. This I knew to
be true, and about three o'clock we were in front of a water-course, I
had on a former journey named the "Rocky river," from the ragged
character of its bed where we struck it.
We had been travelling for some distance upon a high level open country,
and now came to a sudden gorge of several hundred feet below us, through
which the Rocky river wound its course. It was a most singular and wild
looking place, and was not inaptly named by the men, the "Devil's Glen;"
looking down from the table land we were upon, the valley beneath
appeared occupied by a hundred little hills of steep ascent and rounded
summits, whilst through their pretty glens, flowed the winding stream,
shaded by many a tree and shrub - the whole forming a most interesting and
picturesque scene.
The bed of the watercourse was over an earthy slate, and the water had a
sweetish taste. Like most of the Australian rivers, it consisted only of
ponds connected by a running stream, and even that ceased to flow a
little beyond where we struck it, being lost in the deep sandy channel
which it then assumed, and which exhibited in many places traces of very
high floods. Below our camp the banks were 50 to 60 feet high, and the
width from 60 to 100 yards, its course lay through plains to the
south-west, over which patches of scrub were scattered at intervals, and
the land in its vicinity was of an inferior description, with much
prickly grass growing upon it.
Upwards, the Rocky river, after emerging from the gorges in which we
found it, descended through very extensive plains from the
north-north-east; there was plenty of water in its bed, and abundance of
grass over the plains, so that in its upper parts it offers fine and
extensive runs for either cattle or sheep, and will, I have no doubt, ere
many years be past, be fully occupied for pastoral purposes.
