30th November.
Resumed our route up the river at 5.40 a.m., the general course south;
there being no change in the character of the country till 10.0, when the
hills receded and the cliffs ceased; at 10.30 halted at a small pool in a
back channel of the river. At noon the thermometer stood at 100 degrees
in the shade, and the aneroid 29.75--forty feet above the river. Starting
again at 2.0 p.m., soon entered an extensive plain extending to the east,
south, and west; followed a large creek to the south-west till 6.15, and
encamped.
Latitude by meridian altitude of Achernar 16 degrees 2 minutes 30
seconds.
1st December.
At 5.40 a.m. crossed the creek and steered east to the foot of a rocky
hill, but not seeing the principal branch of the Victoria, returned to
the creek and then steered south-south-west till 10.0 a.m., when we
crossed two small creeks, in the second of which we found a pool of water
surrounded by reeds (typha), and halted during the heat of the day. The
country traversed was first a stony ridge, on which several small stone
huts had been erected, but scarcely of sufficient size for a man to
enter, and the roofs were only formed by a few pieces of wood and a
little grass; they consist of a wall three feet high, in the form of a
horseshoe, about three feet in diameter inside; the entrances of some had
been closed with stones and afterwards partially opened, and I can only
conjecture that, as the practice of carrying the bones of their deceased
relatives prevails in this part of Australia, it is probable that these
erections are used as temporary sepulchres. After crossing this stony
ridge entered a level plain of clay, much fissured by the sun, and in
some parts covered with fragments of jasper and sandstones; as the creek
was approached limestone prevailed, but the exposed portion seemed to be
formed by a rearrangement of the broken fragments of older rocks, which
were visible in the gullies. The water at which we halted appeared to be
supplied by a spring, and not to be the retention of rainwater. At 3.15
p.m. proceeded in a westerly direction in search of the principal branch
of the creek, which we reached at 4.0 p.m., but found it much reduced in
size, not exceeding fifteen yards in width; followed it up for an hour,
and camped at a small but deep pool of water, which is evidently supplied
by a spring in the limestone rocks, which form the banks of the creek.
Latitude by meridian altitude of Achernar 16 degrees 10 minutes.