24th February.
At 6.0 a.m. resumed our journey down the creek, which spread into a broad
swampy flat about a mile wide, and covered with atriplex, polygonum, and
grass, the general trend south-west; at 7.30 crossed a large watercourse
from the south-east, with a dry sandy channel, no water having flowed
down it this season; at 9.0 a.m. crossed to the right bank of the creek;
there were many shallow muddy channels and one with running water four
yards wide and one foot deep; the largest channel was near the right
bank, but, except a large shallow pool, it was dry. As we advanced the
country showed effects of long-continued drought, and though the creek
contained some large shallow pools, the channel was dry between, the dry
soil absorbing the whole of the water which was running in the channel
above; at 11.50 camped at what appeared to be the termination of the
pools of water, as the channel was again lost in a perfectly level flat.
Great numbers of ducks, cockatoos, cranes, and crows frequented the banks
of the creek above the camp, and appeared to feed on the wild rice which
was growing in considerable quantities in the moist hollows, as also a
species of panicum; to the south-east of the creek there is a level
box-flat which extends two to three miles back to the foot of some low
sandy ridges covered with triodia and a few small eucalypti; to the
north-west and west the grassy plain extended to the horizon, with
scarcely even a bush to intercept the even surface of the waving grass.
Latitude by Canopus and Pollux 18 degrees 45 minutes 45 seconds.
25th February.
The small number of water-fowl which passed up or down the creek during
the night indicated that water was not abundant below our present
position, and we were therefore prepared for a dry country, in which we
were not disappointed, for leaving the camp at 6.15 a.m. we traversed a
level box-flat covered with long dry grass; at 9.10 a.m. again entered
the usual channel of the creek, which was now a wide flat of deeply
cracked mud with a great quantity of atriplex growing on it, but which
had lost all the leaves from the long continuance of the dry weather. The
flat was traversed by numerous small channels from one to two feet deep,
but they were all perfectly dry and had not contained water for more than
a year; there were, however, marks of inundations in previous years, when
the country must have exhibited a very different appearance, and had it
been then visited by an explorer, the account of a fine river nearly a
mile wide flowing through splendid plains of high grass, could be
scarcely reconciled with the facts I have to record of a mud flat deeply
fissured by the scorching rays of a tropical sun, the absence of water,
and even scarcity of grass. The creek now turned to the south, and we
followed the shallow channels till 12.30 p.m., when we fortunately came
to a small pool which had been filled by a passing thunder-shower, and
here we encamped during the day; a fresh breeze at times blew from the
south-east and south, and the air was exceedingly warm; thermometer 106
degrees at noon, but being very dry, was not very oppressive.
Latitude by Canopus, Castor and Pollux 18 degrees 55 minutes 45 seconds.