13th January.
The night cool and clear; thermometer 62 degrees at sunrise with heavy
dew; steering an average south course from 6.40 a.m. till 11.25, reached
the western branch of the Victoria River and encamped. The country
traversed was nearly level and well grassed and thinly wooded with
eucalypti and bauhinia; the soil is brown loam with small fragments of
limestone; the river was running strong, but not in flood; the greatest
rise this season had been only ten feet, and the usual flood-marks were
twenty feet higher.
Latitude by Aldebaran and Capella 16 degrees 25 minutes 12 seconds.
14th January.
Followed the river to the west-south-west, crossing two large tributary
creeks from the north-west, approaching the sandstone ranges on the
western side of the plain; the soil did not improve, but became very
sandy; the country is thinly wooded with box-trees and bauhinia of small
size; grass is abundant and good. At noon one of the pack-horses, Sam,
knocked up, and his load being transferred to one of the riding-horses,
he was left to rest while we sought a suitable spot for a camp, and at
12.15 p.m. halted at a small gully, as the bank of the river was unsafe
for the horses, being very boggy. Sent back for the horse Sam, and
brought him to camp; ascended the hill to the north-west of the camp to
take bearings, but no important features of the country were visible; in
ascending the hill the aneroid (B) fell from 29.62 to 28.55 degrees, and
on descending only rose to 28.80 degrees, the estimated height being 300
feet; as this indicated a change in form of the metal of the instrument,
I re-adjusted it to the aneroid (A), 29.45 degrees. The continuance of
fine weather and forward state of the grass led to the supposition that
the wet season had already terminated, though only two months have
elapsed since the first rains. It is probable that the wet season is much
shorter in the interior than on the coast, and at no great distance
inland the tropical wet season will cease altogether, as Captain Sturt,
in latitude 26 degrees, only observed a fall of rain in the month of
August; but this might be exceptional, as in the case of Dr. Leichhardt,
who never encountered a rainy season during the journey to Port
Essington.
Latitude by Aldebaran and Capella 16 degrees 27 minutes 20 seconds.
15th January.
Started at 6.45 a.m. and followed the river to the west-south-west; the
hills coming close to the bank for some miles, caused the journey to be
slow and difficult; crossed two large creeks coming from the
west-north-west, the second seventy yards wide; at 10.35 encamped in a
fine grassy flat. The course of the river was now more from the south,
and the valley expanded into a plain several miles wide.
16th January.
As several of the horses required a day's rest, at 6.0 a.m. I started
with Mr. H. Gregory to examine the country to the southward, and followed
the river through a fine grassy plain till 10.0, when it entered the
sandstone ranges, and the valley contracted to half a mile; the hills
were steep, but the level ground in the valley, except where intersected
by gullies, was good travelling and well grassed. The river is much
reduced in size and the water is confined to the smaller channels of the
principal bed; the water is clear, and had not that muddy appearance
which characterises it lower down. The geological character of the rocks
is unchanged; but the bed of the river being less deeply excavated, the
lower beds of limestone and jasper are not so largely developed, the
summit of the hills are not quite as level, and large blocks of
sandstone, the remains of an upper stratum, gives the country a very
rugged appearance. Returned to the camp at 6.30 p.m. In the evening there
was a heavy thunder-squall from the north, but the weather cleared at
midnight.