12th May.
By the time we had commenced loading our horses, a large body of natives
had collected and approached to reconnoitre our camp; I advanced towards
them to keep them in check until the loads were completed. On observing
that I came alone three natives advanced to meet me, throwing three or
four spears at me in a friendly way, which I picked up and stuck in the
ground by my side; this token at once established a good understanding,
and after an exchange of presents they followed us for many miles down
the river before quitting us. Towards nightfall several of our friends of
the morning again made their appearance with a number of strange natives,
dodging us among the deep muddy ravines which abound at this part of the
river; their manoeuvres being equivocal and unsatisfactory, we kept well
on our guard; they, however, ran off at night, on my facing about on
horseback to drive them away.
Our course during the day had been nearly west twenty-two miles, one
large tributary having joined the river from the northward, which was
afterwards named the Lyons, in honour of the gallant admiral of that
name; this accession had increased the breadth of the channel to 400
yards. As we drew towards our evening's bivouac the river entered a gorge
formed by the river cutting through the south end of a flat-topped
sandstone range of about 1,200 feet elevation above the sea, presenting
many bold and picturesque outlines and detached summits, terminating in
abrupt and almost precipitous faces; to this we gave the name of the
Kennedy Range, in honour of our present Governor.
To the south a detached mass of broken sandstone hills gradually falls
away in the distance, apparently into a barren scrub similar to those on
the banks of the lower Murchison, while to the west lay before us an
extensive plain, unbroken by a single object save a few long ridges of
red drift sand, clothed with a stunted scrub of melaleuca and acacia. The
bottom of the gorge we found to be 480 feet above the sea.
13th May.
From this morning to noon of the 15th the country passed over was similar
to that first described, the sand ridges running north-west and
south-east at about a quarter of a mile apart; the river keeping a
general course of west-north-west, its channel deepening to sixty feet,
and maintaining an average width of 400 yards. Grass was only to be found
in small patches along the margin of the river; the accumulated waters of
the late inundations having been confined to one channel, had risen to
the height of forty-eight feet, carrying away many of the largest timber
trees, as also much of the soil from the banks, leaving a scene of
devastation exceeding anything of the kind I had hitherto witnessed.
A small description of Spanish reed was here first observed to grow on
the margin of the pools. Deep muddy creeks, having only short courses,
were very numerous, rendering travelling both tedious and intricate.
From noon of the 15th the country gradually opened out to a
thinly-grassed plain of light alluvial soil, atriplex bushes and acacia
widely scattered forming almost the entire vegetation; the ground, with
the exception of the bed of the river, being parched and dry, no rain
having fallen during the summer to the west of the Lyons River, in
longitude 115 degrees 30 minutes east.
16th May.
Being Sunday, we only moved four miles lower down the river for better
feed, the channel widening out to 600 yards.
17th May.
Early to-day the river began to throw off numerous channels to the north
and south, shedding, when in a flood, a considerable amount of water over
the adjoining plains, clothing the country in the garb of spring, the
grass growing luxuriantly along the numerous channels, atriplex and other
low bushes generally covering the plain, the lowest levels of which were
extensively covered with fields of mud from one to fourteen inches thick,
the deposit of a single inundation, yet scarcely hardened by the summer
sun.