M. C. of Sydney.] are many springs of water,
and the scenery is as picturesque as the district is fertile.
Many of the hills are well rounded, very grassy, and moderately well
timbered even to their summits. This is one of the prettiest and most
desirable localities for either sheep or cattle, that I have yet seen in
the unoccupied parts of South Australia, whilst the distance from
Adelaide by land, does not at the most exceed one hundred and twenty
miles. [Note 2: All this country, and for some distance to the
north, is now occupied by stations.] The watercourse near our camp took
its course through an open valley, between bare hills on which there was
neither tree nor shrub for firewood and we were constantly obliged to go
half a mile up a steep hill before we could obtain a few stunted bushes to
cook with. As the watercourse approached the Broughton the country became
much more abrupt and broken, and after its junction with that river, the
stream wound through a succession of barren and precipitous hills, for
about fifteen miles, at a general course of south-west; these hills were
overrun almost everywhere with prickly grass and had patches of the
Eucalyptus dumosa scattered over them at intervals.
Up to the point where it left the hills, there were ponds of water in the
bed of the Broughton, but upon leaving them the river changed its
direction to the northward, passing through extensive plains and
retaining a deep wide gravelly channel, but without surface water, the
drainage being entirely underground, and the country around comparatively
poor and valueless.
Chapter III.
SPRING HILL - AN AGED NATIVE DESERTED BY HIS TRIBE - RICH AND EXTENSIVE
PLAINS - SURPRISE A PARTY OF NATIVES - ROCKY 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.
