In The Dusk Of The Evening I Took A Stroll
Along A Chain Of Ponds, Which In This Dry Country Represented
The Course Of A River, And Had The Good Fortune To See Several
Of The Famous Ornithorhynchus Paradoxus.
They were
diving and playing about the surface of the water, but
showed so little of their bodies, that they might easily have
been mistaken for water-rats.
Mr. Browne shot one: certainly
it is a most extraordinary animal; a stuffed specimen does not
at all give a good idea of the appearance of the head and beak
when fresh; the latter becoming hard and contracted. [5]
20th. - A long day's ride to Bathurst. Before joining the
highroad we followed a mere path through the forest; and
the country, with the exception of a few squatters' huts, was
very solitary. We experienced this day the sirocco-like wind
of Australia, which comes from the parched deserts of the
interior. Clouds of dust were travelling in every direction;
and the wind felt as if it had passed over a fire. I afterwards
heard that the thermometer out of doors had stood at
119 degs., and in a closed room at 96 degs. In the afternoon we
came in view of the downs of Bathurst. These undulating but
nearly smooth plains are very remarkable in this country,
from being absolutely destitute of trees. They support only
a thin brown pasture. We rode some miles over this country,
and then reached the township of Bathurst, seated in the
middle of what may be called either a very broad valley, or
narrow plain. I was told at Sydney not to form too bad an
opinion of Australia by judging of the country from the
roadside, nor too good a one from Bathurst; in this latter
respect, I did not feel myself in the least danger of being
prejudiced. The season, it must be owned, had been one of great
drought, and the country did not wear a favourable aspect;
although I understand it was incomparably worse two or
three months before. The secret of the rapidly growing
prosperity of Bathurst is, that the brown pasture which
appears to the stranger's eye so wretched, is excellent for
sheep-grazing. The town stands, at the height of 2200 feet
above the sea, on the banks of the Macquarie. This is one of
the rivers flowing into the vast and scarcely known interior.
The line of water-shed, which divides the inland streams from
those on the coast, has a height of about 3000 feet, and runs
in a north and south direction at the distance of from eighty
to a hundred miles from the sea-side. The Macquarie figures
in the map as a respectable river, and it is the largest of
those draining this part of the water-shed; yet to my surprise
I found it a mere chain of ponds, separated from each other
by spaces almost dry. Generally a small stream is running;
and sometimes there are high and impetuous floods.
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