4th May.
The river we had encamped upon the preceding night had a level sandy
channel thirty-five yards wide, with several shallow pools in its bed; a
narrow belt of flooded-gum lined either bank, which also produced
abundance of excellent feed; several of the grasses were new to us,
yielding a large quantity of seed; further back the pasture was more
scanty, and of an inferior variety of grass, the trees consisting almost
entirely of small hakea or acacia.
The features of the country are generally very tame, with the exception
of a prominent hill of considerable altitude, nearly twenty miles to the
northward, to which we gave the name of Mount Gascoyne. The summit of
another range, of less elevation, a little to the northward of west,
distant fifteen miles, was called Mount Puckford.
Having decided upon following the left bank of the river, with the view
of ascertaining what tributaries might joint from the southward, we this
morning took our course for Mount Puckford, touching frequently upon the
bends of the river, which soon found a junction with a large channel
coming from the eastward, which ultimately proved to be the main
Gascoyne; it was still running in a small stream in the bottom of a sandy
bed, eighty yards wide, traces of recent heavy floods being plentiful. At
ten miles the river has broken through a ridge of opaline rocks, in
irregular masses, resembling flints, lying north-east and south-west, and
a few miles further coming in contact with the south-east foot of Mount
Puckford, it doubles back round its north-east base, and there takes a
general north-west course to latitude 24 degrees 36 minutes, and
longitude 116 degrees east, which we reached by noon of the 7th, a
considerable tributary joining at this point from the northward. A
compact sandstone range, resting on a granite base (which was named the
Lockier Range, after Mr. Lockier Burgess, one of the principal promoters
of the expedition), here diverts the course of the river to the left,
which, by sundown, we found was running nearly south. The country for the
last fifty miles varies but little in character, extensive open plains
alternating with low granite ridges; the banks of the river, which here
has acquired a width of 100 yards, with a depth of forty-six feet, being
in many places stony and cut down by deep muddy creeks, rendering
travelling both slow and laborious. Several tributaries join from the
north and south, all of which had very recently ceased to run.
To the north and east were several prominent peaks and ranges of trap
hills clothed with short herbage; to the highest of the former, a single
conical peak, with deeply serrated sides, was given the name of Mount
James, after my friend and fellow-traveller, Mr. James Roe; while two
lofty summits, far to the northward, were called Mount Samuel and Mount
Phillips.
The principal feed was found near the banks of the rivers, the back
country still yielding only a scanty supply of a red-coloured silky grass
of little value except when quite fresh. A tree resembling the sycamore
of the Murchison, but with the leaves arranged in triplets, and the seed
pods in the form of a large bean, grows near the river and attains to two
feet in diameter, with a height of forty feet; the wood is light and
spongy, something resembling the Nuytsia floribunda, but not gummy. It is
formed by the natives into shields, and near the coast into canoes. We
also found on some of the rocky hills a tree with fruit and flowers
resembling a small fig, the leaves like a lemon, but yielding an acrid
milky juice.
Several new species of crested quail and dark-brown pigeons were first
observed here; the beautiful small doves, common in the northern
districts, were also seen by thousands; gallinule and the elegant
Ochaphaps plumafera (crested pigeon of the marshes) were also very
numerous.