13th August.
Left the camp at 7.0 a.m. and continued a south-easterly course, crossing
a succession of sandy valleys and broken sandstone hills; the strata
horizontal, and lamina dipping to the north and east generally, but
sometimes in the opposite direction; the soil poor and sandy, producing
little besides white-gum and triodia. At noon ascended a high ridge, from
which we saw a broad valley to the south-east, beyond which was a range
of flat-topped hills terminating abruptly at the northern end, which bore
east by north. Descending by a rocky ravine, at 1.30 p.m. reached a fine
creek, on which we camped. This creek had deep pools of water fifty yards
wide; but the steep rocky character of its banks caused the channel to
appear larger than if it had been in a more level country. Under some
large rocks Dean found a fishing-net made neatly of twisted bark, the
mesh one and a half inch, the length perhaps thirty feet; some fishing
spears showed the marks of iron tools. The rocks in this part of the
country often contain angular fragments of the lower strata; thus the
limestone includes fragments of chert and jasper, and the sandstone
pieces of limestone, but I could not detect either granite, quartz, or
slate.
Latitude by a Trianguli Australis 17 degrees 11 minutes 1 second.
14th August.
At 6.20 a.m. we were again in the saddle, and steered south-east across
very rocky hills till 8.0, when we entered a fine valley with low hills
of limestone and trap, well grassed and thinly wooded with box-trees and
acacia; at 10.0 ascended a rough sandstone range with white-gum, acacia,
and triodia; at 11.0 again descended into a valley bounded by sandstone
cliffs on the northern side, and camped at a fine pool of water in a
small creek at 12.5. Several trees near this pool of water had been
marked by the blacks, the bark having been removed, the wood was painted
yellow with brown spots at regular intervals, and vertical waved lines in
black. It is evident from the outline of the hills that we are travelling
on the edge of the tableland of Northern Australia, and this accounts for
the small size of the watercourses, while the abrupt and broken nature of
the hills has caused the rocks to form channels of sufficient size to
retain water throughout the year, while the same disruption of the strata
has exposed the limestone and trap-rock, has caused fertile patches of
country, and thus enabled us to traverse a country which is otherwise
barren and inhospitable in the extreme, our chief difficulty being the
rocky character of the country, which can only be traversed with
well-shod horses. It is possible that some small tracts of available
country may exist between our track and the shores of the Gulf of
Carpentaria, but to the south there is little to expect besides a barren
sandy desert, as on every occasion that the tableland has been ascended,
nothing but sandy worthless country has been encountered.
Latitude by Vega 17 degrees 17 minutes 56 seconds.