Continue the journey.
Acacia pendula.
Ascend Mount Amyot.
Field's Plains.
Cracks in the surface.
Ascend Mount Cunningham.
Mr. Oxley's tree.
Rain.
Goobang Creek.
Large fishes.
Heavy rain.
Ascend Mount Allan.
Natives from the Bogan.
Prophecy of a Coradje.
Poisoned waterhole.
Ascend Hurd's Peak.
Snake and bird.
Ride to Mount Granard.
Scarcity of water there.
View from the summit.
Encamp there.
Ascend Bolloon, a hill beyond the Lachlan.
Natives refuse to eat emu.
Native dog.
Kalingalungaguy.
Mr. Stapylton overtakes the party.
Of the plains in general.
Character of the Goobang and Bogan.
Cudjallagong or Regent's Lake.
Nearly dry.
Dead trees in it.
Rocks near it.
Trap and tuff.
Natives there.
Women.
Men.
Their account of the country lower down.
Oolawambiloa.
Gaiety of the natives.
Colour light.
Mr. Stapylton surveys the lake.
Campbell's Lake.
Piper obtains a gin.
Ascend Goulburn range.
View from the summit.
Warranary.
A new Correa.
CONTINUE THE JOURNEY.
March 25.
Following the direction of the general course of the Lachlan as laid down
by Mr. Oxley we crossed a fine tract of open forest land, and at the
distance of five miles arrived at a dry reach. Soon after we passed
Billabugan, a cattle station on the river where the dry branch joined it;
and at three miles further we traversed the southern skirts of a plain,
and finally made a bend of the Lachlan on which we encamped in latitude
33 degrees 24 minutes 28 seconds South. In the course of this day's
journey we discovered a bush resembling the European dwarf elder but with
yellow flowers, and fruit with scarcely any pulp.*
(*Footnote. This proves to be a new genus of Caprifoliaceae, paragraph
mark Sambuceae. Tripetelus australasicus, Lindley manuscripts (tripetelos
having 3 leaves; the calyx has 3 sepals, the corolla 3 petals, the
stamens are 3, and the carpels are also 3). Calyx superus tridentatus.
Corolla rotata, tripartita, lutea, laciniis concavis conniventibus.
Antherae tres, fauce sessiles. Ovarium 3-loculare; ovulis solitariis
pendulis; stigmata 3, sessilia. Fructus subexsuccus, 3-queter, 3-pyrenus,
putamine chartaceo. Caulis herbaceus. Folia opposita, glabra, pinnata,
2-juga cum impari, laciniis lanceolatis acuminatis serratis; glandulis 2
verruciformibus loco stipularum. Flores laxe paniculati.)
Acacia pendula.
March 26.
This day at five miles further we ascended some undulating ground on
which the acacias of the interior grew. We found the same ridged and wavy
surface with the Acacia pendula and the pigeons which usually abound
about such parts of the country. Here we found also a singular species of
Jasmine, forming an upright bush not unlike a Vitex, with short axillary
panicles of white flowers. It proved to be J. lineare, R. Br. We soon
after came upon the borders of the great plain of Gullerong, which
extends about eight miles from east to west, and three northward from a
branch of the river, then quite dry. These I believe were the
Solway-flats of Mr. Oxley. We turned from them late in the afternoon, at
the suggestion of a native wearing a brass-plate like a bottle label, and
on which was engraven Billy Hawthorne. We succeeded in reaching a bend of
the river containing water only after travelling 18 1/4 miles; and in
latitude 33 degrees 23 minutes 21 seconds South.
March 27.
This day being Sunday I halted; especially as the cattle had made an
unusually long journey the day before. I wished to take sights for the
purpose of ascertaining the rate of my chronometer, and to lay down my
surveys. I found that Mr. Oxley's points on this river were much too far
to the westward; a circumstance to be expected as his survey could not,
at that early age of the colony, be connected with Parramatta by actual
measurement; as mine was. Our latitudes however agreed very exactly.
ASCEND MOUNT AMYOT.
March 28.
Continued our journey and, at only a mile and a half from our camp, I was
surprised to find myself at the foot of Mount Amyot, better known to
stockmen by its native name of Camerberdang. I gave the party a bearing
or distant object to advance upon; and I lost no time in ascending the
hill, followed by Woods with my theodolite. From its crest, low as it
was, I still recognised the Canobolas and ascertained from my drawings
formerly made there that even on this hill (Mount Amyot) I had taken an
angle from their summit last season. It was valuable now, enabling me to
determine the true place of the hill from which I was to extend my angles
further westward. I easily recognised Marga and Nangar, and a very useful
and remarkable point of my former survey to the northward of those hills,
also several still more conspicuous ones in the country beyond the
Lachlan.
FIELD'S PLAINS.
To the westward I beheld the view etched in Mr. Oxley's book as Field's
Plains; and what was of much more importance to me then, Mounts
Cunningham, Melville, Allan, etc. etc. on all which, as far as I could, I
took angles, and then descending, rejoined the party about six miles on.
I met at the foot of this hill a colonist, a native of the country.* He
said he had been seventy miles down the river in search of a run for his
cattle; but had found none; and he assured me that, without the aid of
the blacks who were with him on horseback, he could not have obtained
water.
(*Footnote. Mr. James Collits of Mount York.)
Mount Amyot had the appearance of granite from the plains, but I found
that it consisted of the ferruginous sandstone. It is the southern
extremity of a long ridge elevated not more than 200 feet above the
plains at its base. We encamped at a bend of the river, on the border of
a small plain named Merumba in latitude 33 degrees 19 minutes 16 seconds
South. Variation 8 degrees 54 minutes 15 seconds East.
We were here disturbed by herds of cattle running towards our spare
bullocks and mixing with them and the horses. In no district have I seen
cattle so numerous as all along the Lachlan; and notwithstanding the very
dry season, they were nearly all in good condition. We found this day,
near the river bed, a new herbaceous indigo with white flowers and pods
like those of the prickly liquorice (Glycyrrhiza echinata).*
(*Footnote. I. acantho carpa, Lindley manuscripts; caule herbaceo erecto
ramisque angulatis scabriusculis, foliis pinnatis 5-jugis
viscido-pubescentibus; foliolis lineari-lanceolatis mucronulatis margine
scabris, racemis folio aequalibus, leguminibus subrotundo-ovalibus
compressis mucronatis echinatis monospermis.)
March 29.
Our next point was Mount Cunningham (Beery birree of the natives) and we
travelled towards it along the margin of Field's Plains as the angles of
the river allowed.
CRACKS IN THE SURFACE.
This was our straightest course, but we had to keep along the riverbank
for another reason. The plains were full of deep cracks and holes so that
the cart wheels more than once sunk into them, and thus detained us for
nearly an hour. A sagacious black advised us to keep near the riverbank,
and we found the ground better. We encamped at half-past two o'clock,
after a journey of ten miles; and I immediately set out, accompanied by a
native and a man carrying my theodolite, both on horseback, for the
highest or northern point of Mount Cunningham (a). The distance was full
five miles; yet we could not proceed direct on horseback, the scorched
plains being full of deep, wide cracks; and we were therefore compelled
to take a circuitous route nearer the river.
ASCEND MOUNT CUNNINGHAM.
There our guide called up three savage-looking natives with spears, whom
he described to be the natives of the hill, and they accompanied us to
the top. With some difficulty we led our horses near the crest, our new
friends always keeping the vantage ground of us, apparently from
apprehension. At length I planted my theodolite on the highest part of
the summit which commanded a fine view of the western horizon; and from
the mouths of my sable guides I obtained the native names, in all their
purity, of the various hills in sight. The most distant, named Bolloon,
were said to be near the great lake Cudjallagong--no doubt Regent's Lake
of Oxley--and a peak they called Tolga I took to be Hurd's Peak of the
same traveller.
NYORORONG.
Still I saw nothing on the horizon in the direction of his Mount Granard,
and in no other any hill of magnitude, except in the quarter whence I
came, where I still discerned my old friends Marga and Nangar, with
Nyororong and Berabidjal, high hills more to the southward.
Mount Cunningham consists of ferruginous sandstone. The sun had reached
the horizon before I left the summit, which I did not until I had
obtained an angle on every visible point. We arrived at the camp soon
after seven o'clock. Latitude by an observation of Cor Leonis 33 degrees
15 minutes 27 seconds South.
MR. OXLEY'S TREE.
March 30.
I ascertained accidentally this morning that we were abreast of the spot
where Mr. Oxley left the Lachlan and proceeded southward. This I learnt
from a marked tree which a native pointed out to me distant about 250
yards south from our camp, on the opposite side of a branch of the river.
On this tree were still legible the names of Mr. Oxley and Mr. Evans; and
although the inscription had been there nineteen years the tree seemed
still in full vigour; nor could its girth have altered much, judging from
the letters which were still as sharp as when first cut, only the bark
having overgrown part of them had been recently cleared away a little as
if to render the letters more legible. I endeavoured to preserve still
longer an inscription which had withstood the fires of the bush and the
tomahawks of the natives for such a length of time by making a drawing of
it as it then appeared.
By Mr. Oxley's journal we learn that where the river formed two branches
he, on the 17th of May, 1817, hauled up his boats, and on the following
day commenced his intended journey towards the south-east. But our
latitudes also assisted us in verifying the spot. Mr. Oxley made the
latitude of his camp (doubtless near the tree) 33 degrees 15 minutes 34
seconds South which gives a difference of seven seconds for the 250 yards
between the tree and my camp. The variation of the needle Mr. Oxley found
to be here, in 1817, 7 degrees 0 minutes 8 seconds East and I had made it
at the last camp (Merimbah) 8 degrees 54 minutes 15 seconds East, or
nearly two degrees more, in a lapse of 19 years. The longitude of this
point as now ascertained by trigonometrical measurement from Parramatta
was 147 degrees 33 minutes 50 seconds East, or 17 minutes 50 seconds
(equal on this parallel to 17 1/4 miles) nearer to Sydney than it is laid
down by Mr. Oxley.
We proceeded from this camp towards the southern extremity of Mount
Cunningham, under which a small branch of the Lachlan passes so close
that the party was occupied an hour and a half in removing rocks to open
a passage for the carts. We then got into an open country in which we
soon saw the same dry branch of the Lachlan before us; but we turned more
to the north-west until we reached a slightly undulated surface. No
branch of the river extends to the northward of Mount Cunningham as shown
on Mr. Oxley's map; but a small tributary watercourse, then dry, skirts
the eastern side of the hill, and enters that branch of the Lachlan which
we were upon.
Yesterday and this day had been so excessively hot (82 degrees in the
shade) that I confidently anticipated rain, especially when the sky
became cloudy to the westward, while the wind blew steadily from the
opposite quarter. A dense body of vapour in the shape of stratus, or fall
cloud of the meteorologist, was at the same time stretching eastward
along the distant horizon on both sides of us. After crossing some sound,
open plains of stiff clay, guided by the natives, we gained an extensive
pond of muddy water and encamped on a hill of red sand on its northern
bank, and under shelter of a grove of callitris trees.
RAIN.
The wind now began to blow and the sky, to my great delight, being at
length overcast, promised rain enough to fill the streams and waterholes:
at twilight it began to come down. In the woods we passed through this
day we found a curious willow-like acacia with the leaves slightly
covered with bloom, and sprinkled on the underside with numerous reddish
minute drops of resin.* The Pittosporum angustifolium we also recognised
here, loaded with its singular orange-coloured bivalved fruit.
(*Footnote. This is allied in some respects to A. verniciflua and
exudans, but is a very distinct and well-marked species. A. salicina,
Lindley manuscripts; glaucescens, ramulis angulatis, phyllodiis
divaricatis lineari et oblongo-lanceolatis utrinque angustatis
obtusissimis uninerviis venulis pinnatis: ipso apice glandulosis subtus
resinoso-punctatis, capitulis 3-5 racemosis phyllodiis triplo
brevioribus.)
March 31.
It rained during the night and this morning the sky seemed as if it would
continue; the mercury in the barometer also falling, we halted. On a dry
sandhill, with wood and water at hand, we were well prepared to await the
results of a flood; some good grass also was found for the cattle on firm
ground at the distance of about two miles.
GOOBANG CREEK.
Mount Allan (Wollar of the natives) lay north-east by north, at a
distance of 3 3/4 miles. It was not a conspicuous or commanding hill, but
between it and our camp we this day discovered a feature of considerable
importance. This was the Goobang creek of our former journey, to all
appearance here as great a river as the Bogan and indeed its channel,
where we formerly saw it, contained deep ponds of clear water at a season
when the muddy holes of the Bogan had nearly failed us. Here the Goobang
much resembled that river in the depth of its bed and the character of
its banks: and its sources and tributaries must be also similar to those
of the Bogan. Hervey's range gives birth to the one, Croker's range to
the other and, their respective courses being along the opposite sides of
the higher land extending westward between the Lachlan and Macquarie, all
their tributaries must fall from the same ridge. Of these Mr. Oxley
crossed several in his route from the Lachlan to the Macquarie;
Emmeline's Valley creek belonging to the basin of the Goobang;
Coysgaine's ponds and Allan's water to that of the Bogan. It was rather
unfortunate, considering how much has been said about the Lachlan
receiving no tributaries in its long course, that Mr. Oxley left
unexplored that part where a tributary of such importance as the Goobang
joins it; especially as the floods of this stream lay the country below
Mount Cunningham under water, and are the sole cause of that swampy
appearance which Mr. Oxley observed from the hill on looking westward. It
would appear that this traveller's route northward was nearly parallel to
the general course of the Goobang. The name this stream receives from the
natives here is Billibang, Goobang being considered but one of its
tributaries. Its course completes the analogy between the rivers and
plains on each side, and the supposed disappearance of the channel of the
Lachlan seemed consequently as doubtful as the mysterious termination of
the Macquarie.
April 1.
The rain continuing, the party remained encamped. The barometer had
fallen since we came here from 29.442, at which it stood last night at
ten, to 29.180, which I noted this morning at six: the thermometer
continuing about 60 degrees of Fahrenheit.
LARGE FISHES.
On dragging our net through the muddy pond we captured two fishes, but of
monstrous size, one weighing 17 pounds, the other about 12 pounds.
Although very different in shape, I recognised in them the fish of the
perch kind with large scales* and the eel-fish** formerly caught by us in
the Namoi. But the former when taken in that river was coarse and tasted
of mud, whereas this ruffe, although so large was not coarse, but rich,
and of excellent flavour--and so fat that the flakes fell into crumbs
when fried. This day a bird of a new species was shot by Roach. It was of
a swallow kind, about the size of a snipe, of a leaden colour, with dark
head and wings.
(*Footnote. Cernua bidyana.)
(**Footnote. Plotosus tandanus.)
HEAVY RAIN.
April 2.
The rain continued through the night and this morning it fell rather
heavily, so that enough of water could be gathered from the surface of
the plains near our camp to preclude the necessity for our having
recourse to the muddy pool. The barometer began to rise slowly from seven
in the morning, when it had reached its minimum; but the weather
continued hazy, with drizzling rain (from the south-west) until four
o'clock, when the clouds slowly drew up. The plains were not yet at all
saturated, although become too soft for our carts. The evening was
cloudy, but by ten o'clock the state of the barometer was such as to
leave little doubt about the return of fair weather. We this day found in
the woods to the northward a most beautiful species of Trichinium, with
spiky feathered pale yellow flowers, sometimes as much as six inches
long.*
(*Footnote. Tr. nobile, Lindley manuscripts; foliis caulinis obovatis
cuspidatis subundulatis ramisque corymbosis angulatis glabris, spica
cylindracea: rachi lanata, calycis laciniis 3 acutis 2 retusis, bracteis
puberulis. Differs from Tr. densum, Cunningham in the bracts not being
villous at the base, and from T. macrocephalum, R. Br. in having much
larger flowers, which are yellow not lilac, and in three of the segments
of the calyx being acute.)
ASCEND MOUNT ALLAN.
April 3.
Thick fog in the morning. The day being Sunday the party remained in the
camp; but I do not think we could have left it from the soft state of the
plains, however desirable it might have been to proceed. After twelve I
rode to Wollar (Mount Allan) with the theodolite, and from its summit I
intersected most of the hills seen from Mounts Amyot and Cunningham. A
small wart on the eastern horizon, very distant yet conspicuous, I found
to be Mount Juson, the hill on which I had stood with the brother of the
botanist whose name had been given to this hill by Mr. Oxley.
The sameness in the surface of this country is apparently owing to the
simplicity of its geological composition. All the hills I ascended below
the junction of Byrne's creek consist of ferruginous sandstone, similar
to that which constitutes all the hills I saw on, and even beyond, the
Darling.
On passing to and from Mount Allan we crossed, at three-quarters of a
mile from the camp, Goobang creek, the bed of which exactly resembles
that of the Bogan. The remains of drifted weeds on the trees and the
uniformity of its channel showed that it is a considerable tributary of
the Lachlan. At length the stars appeared in the evening, and I could
once more see my unerring guides, the faithful Little Dog, and the mighty
Hercules,* whereby our latitude seemed to be 33 degrees 8 minutes 55
seconds South.
(*Footnote. Procyon, in Canis Minor and Regulus in Leo. The latter being
also called Hercules and Cor Leonis.)
NATIVES FROM THE BOGAN.
At the camp we recognised among the natives seated at our fire two of our
friends from the Bogan. Their little shovel of hard wood (not used on the
Lachlan) and one of the tomahawks formerly distributed by us left no room
to doubt whether we were right about their features.
PROPHECY OF A CORADJE.
One was an old man and a Coradje, the other was a boy. They disappeared
in the evening, but the Coradje was so far civil as to tell the men that,
having heard The Major was praying for rain, he had caused the late fall.
This priest had also prophesied a little for our information, telling the
men that a day was at hand when two of them would go out to watch the
bullocks and would never return.
April 4.
The surface being sufficiently dry to enable us to travel we accordingly
continued our journey and, crossing the Goobang at 5 1/4 miles, we kept
the right bank of it during the day. The surface on that side was dry and
firm; and it may be remarked that if ever it becomes desirable to open a
line of communication from Sydney towards the country on the lower part
of the Murray, the right bank of the Goobang will probably be found the
best direction as the adjacent valley affords both grass and water for
the passage of cattle, and the doubtful plains of the Lachlan may be thus
avoided.
POISONED WATERHOLE.
We finally encamped on the Lachlan at the junction of the Goobang, in
latitude 33 degrees 5 minutes 20 seconds; longitude East 147 degrees 13
minutes 10 seconds. There the river contained some deep pools and we
expected to catch fish; but Piper told us that the holes had been
recently poisoned, a process adopted by the natives in dry seasons, when
the river no longer flows, for bringing the fish to the surface of deep
ponds and thus killing the whole; I need not add that none of us got a
bite. All these holes were full of recently cut boughs of the eucalyptus,
so that the water was tinged black.
ASCEND HURD'S PEAK.
April 5.
As soon as the party had started I gave the overseer the bearings and
distances to be pursued; while I proceeded to the cone named Hurd's peak
by Oxley, but by the natives Tolga. It was distant about four miles from
our line of route. A low ridge of quartz rock extends from the Goobang to
this peak the base of which consists of chlorite slate, and its summit of
squarish pebbles of quartz, with the angles rounded, associated with
fragments of chlorite slate. There was just convenient room on it for the
theodolite and, as it afforded a most satisfactory and commanding view,
well suited for the purpose of surveying, it seemed to have been aptly
named after a distinguished geographer. Many points of a distant range
now appeared on the north-western horizon in the direction of Oxley's
Mount Granard, and the ridge of Bolloon (towards the great lake
Cudjallagong) seemed not very distant. I took angles on all the points
and then hastened to overtake the party, which I did after they had
travelled about nine miles. At fourteen miles we made the banks of the
Lachlan, and encamped by the side of it on the edge of a plain in
latitude 33 degrees 4 minutes 38 seconds South, longitude 147 degrees
East. Judging by the relative position of Hurd's peak etc., I supposed it
might have been about this place that Oxley's party crossed to the right
bank of the river on his return towards Wellington valley. No traces
however were discovered by us here of the first explorers of the Lachlan.
April 6.
The night had been mild and clear and the sun rose in a cloudless sky. We
traversed plains of firmer surface than those crossed on the previous
day. So early even as nine o'clock the heat was oppressive.
SNAKE AND BIRD.
On one of these plains I witnessed an instance of the peculiar
fascination attributed to the serpent race. A large snake, lying at full
length, attracted our attention and I wished to take it alive, but as
Roach, the collector, was at a distance, some time elapsed before
preparations were made for that purpose. The ground was soft and full of
holes, into one of which it would doubtless have disappeared as soon as
it was alarmed. The rest of the party came up yet, unlike snakes in
general, who glide rapidly off, this creature lay apparently regardless
of noise, or even of the approach of the man, who went slowly behind it
and seized its head. At that moment a little bird fluttered from beside a
small tuft within a few feet of the snake and, it seemed, as the men
believed, scarcely able to make its escape.
When we were near the spot on which we intended to encamp a native
pointed out to me a small hill beyond the river where, as he informed me,
Mr. Oxley and his party had encamped before he crossed the Lachlan. It
was called by this native Gobberguyn. We pitched our tents a little
higher than that hill where a favourable bend of the river met my line of
route. The cattle were much fatigued with the day's work although the
distance did not exceed eleven miles. It was in my power however to give
them rest for a day or two as the grass was tolerably good on that part
of the riverbank, and I was within reach of Mount Granard, a height which
I had long been anxious to examine, as well as the country to be seen
from it. Among the usual grasses we found one which I had not previously
seen and which proved to be a new species of Danthonia.*
(*Footnote. Danthonia pectinata, Lindley manuscripts; spica simplici
secunda pleiostachya pectinata foliis multo longiore, palea inferiore
villosissima; laciniis lateralibus membranaceis aristae aequalibus.)
RIDE TO MOUNT GRANARD.
April 7.
I set off early for Mount Granard, followed by six men on horseback and a
native named Barney who was also mounted. We rode at a smart pace on a
bearing of 280 degrees across thirty miles of soft red sand in which the
horses sank up to their fetlocks, and we reached the foot of the hill a
little before sunset.
SCARCITY OF WATER THERE.
Throughout that extent we neither saw a single watercourse nor discovered
the least indication of water having lodged there during any season. At
eleven miles from the camp we crossed a low ridge of granite (named
Tarratta) a hopeful circumstance to us as promising a primitive range of
hills between the Darling and Lachlan, and because in a crevice of this
granite our aboriginal guide found some water. The desert tract we
crossed was in other respects unvaried except that, in one place, we
passed through four miles of a kind of scrub which presented difficulties
of a new character. The whole of it consisted of bushes of a dwarf
species of eucalyptus, doubtless E. dumosa (A. Cunningham) which grew in
a manner that rendered it impossible to proceed, except in a very sinuous
direction, and then with difficulty by pushing our horses between stiffly
grown branches. Where no bushes grew the earth was naked, except where
some tufts of a coarse matted weed resembling Spinifex impeded the
horses, but seemed to be intended by Providence to bind down these desert
sands. We saw blue ranges on our right, and I hoped that before we
ascended Mount Granard we should cross some watercourse coming from them;
but nothing of the kind appeared and, after traversing a dry sandy flat,
we began to ascend. Finding myself separated from the summit, after we
had climbed some way, by a deep rocky ravine, and being in doubt about
obtaining water, I sent the people with the horses to encamp in the
valley to which that ravine opened, with directions to look for water
while daylight lasted.
VIEW FROM THE SUMMIT.
Meanwhile I proceeded to the summit with one of the men and the native. I
arrived there and, just before the sun went down, obtained an
uninterrupted view of the western horizon; but the scene was inconclusive
as to the existence of such a dividing range as I hoped to see. Ridges
and summits appeared abundantly enough, but they were not of a bold or
connected character, and I did not obtain upon the whole a better idea
than I previously had respecting the extension of that singular group of
hills to the westward. I stood upon the best height however for carrying
on my angles in that direction. To the eastward I saw Hurd's Peak and
Bolloon, also Goulburn's and Macquarie's ranges, Mount Torrens, and Mount
Aiton of Oxley. The last hill appeared alone on the horizon, in a
south-south-east direction as shown in his map. But the most commanding
point was Yerrarar, the highest apex of Goulburn range, forming with
Bolloon and this station an almost equilateral triangle of about 30 miles
a side.
The features before us terminated rather abruptly towards the south like
cliffs of tableland, and seemed to mark out the basin of the Lachlan; but
beyond those parts overlooking Mr. Oxley's route I could obtain no view,
although I perceived that I might from Yerrarar.
ENCAMP THERE.
Having completed my work as the sun was setting I hastened to the valley,
and learnt that the party had discovered neither water nor grass. Barney
the native had nevertheless obtained both when with me at the top of the
mountain; and therefore, although it was dark and we were all fatigued,
yet up that rocky mountain we were compelled to go with the horses, and
encamp near the summit beside a little pool of water which had been
well-known to Barney at other times. On this elevated crest the air was
surprisingly mild during the night for, although I slept in my clothes
and on the ground, I enjoyed its freshness as a great relief from the
oppressive heat of the day. Our singular bivouac on the summit, which I
had so long wished to visit, was adorned with a strange-looking tree,
probably Casuarina glauca.
April 8.
Next morning I had an opportunity of surveying the hills around me more
at leisure, and I noted down their various names from the lips of Barney
for that desolate region, where neither a kangaroo nor a bird was to be
seen or heard, was poor Barney's country, that lonely mountain his home!
I learned that the only water in these deserts was to be found in the
crevices of rocks on such hills as this; and I thus understood the cause
of the smoke I observed last year arising from so many summits when I
looked over the same region from a hill on its northern limits. Perhaps
within thirty miles around there was no other water, and the bare top of
a mountain was certainly one of the last situations where I should have
thought of seeking for it.
We descended after I had completed my survey from a hill which perhaps no
white man will again ascend; I may however add, for the information of
those who may be disposed to do so, that the well is on the crest of a
ridge extending north-west from the principal summit, and distant
therefrom about 200 yards. I had brought provisions for another day as I
originally intended to examine the course of the Lachlan above Mount
Torrens; but having seen enough from this hill to satisfy me on that
point we retraced our steps to the camp.
April 9.
This day I halted as well to rest the horses as for the purpose of
observing equal altitudes of the sun and protracting my survey.
ASCEND BOLLOON, A HILL BEYOND THE LACHLAN.
April 10.
Leaving the party encamped I crossed the Lachlan and rode eight miles due
south to Bolloon which proved to be the highest cone of a low ridge
situated within the great bend of this river. I found it a valuable
station for continuing my chain of triangles downwards, as from it Mounts
Cunningham and Allan, Hurd's Peak, Peel's and Goulburn ranges, Mount
Granard, etc. are all visible. We passed some lower hills belonging to
the same chain, and of which the basis seemed to be the prevailing
ferruginous sandstone. In my return to the camp I found the dogs had
killed an emu.
NATIVES REFUSE TO EAT EMU.
It is singular that none of the natives would eat of this bird; and the
reasons they gave were that they were young men, and that none but older
men who had gins were allowed to eat it; adding that it would make young
men all over boils or eruptions. This rule of abstinence was also rigidly
observed by our interpreter Piper.
NATIVE DOG.
Late in the night I was awoke by one of the watch firing a pistol at a
native dog which had got close to the sheepfold. At the same moment a
sheep leaped out and, having been at the first alarm pursued by our dogs,
it was worried in the bed of the river. The native dog having howled as
it escaped was supposed to have been wounded. To prevent such occurrences
in future and as this arose from a neglect of my original plan, the two
fires of the men's tents were ordered to be again placed in such
positions as threw light around the sheepfold, which was of canvas
fastened to portable stakes and pegs. (See plan of camp, Volume 1.)
KALINGALUNGAGUY.
April 11.
We left this camp (named Camarba) and continued our journey around the
great bend of the Lachlan at which point (4 1/2 miles from our camp) the
low ridge of Kalingalungaguy closed on the river. This ridge is a
remarkable feature, extending north and south, and I expected to see some
tributary from the north entering the river here; but we crossed on the
east side of the ridge only a wide, dry and grassy hollow, which was
however evidently the channel of a considerable body of water in times of
flood, as appeared by marks on the trees which grew along the banks. All
were of the dwarf box kind, named goborro by the natives, a sort of
eucalyptus which usually grows by itself on the lower margins of the
Darling and Lachlan, and other parts subject to inundation, and on which
the occasional rise of the waters is marked by the dark colour remaining
on the lower part of the trunk. In the bed of the Lachlan at the junction
of the channel near Kalingalungaguy I found quartz rock.
MR. STAPYLTON OVERTAKES THE PARTY.
We had not proceeded far beyond that ridge when Mr. Stapylton overtook
the party, having travelled in great haste from Sydney to join us as
second in command, in compliance with my letter of instructions sent from
Buree. Mr. Stapylton was accompanied by two stockmen, having left his own
light equipments at Cordowe, a station above Mount Cunningham. On the
plains which we crossed this day grew in great abundance that beautiful
species of lily found in the expedition of 1831, and already mentioned
under the name of Calostemma candidum,* also the Calostemma luteum of Ker
with yellow flowers.
(*Footnote. Volume 1. C. candidum; floribus centralibus subsessilibus,
articulo infra medium in pedicellis longioribus, corona integerrima.)
At nine miles we crossed some granite rocks, evidently a part of the
ridge of Tarratta, thus exhibiting a uniformity in the granite with the
general direction of other ridges, which is about north-north-east. The
strike is between north and north-east; the dip in some places being to
the west, and in others to the east, at great inclinations. The ridge of
Kalingalungaguy consists of quartz, clay-slate, and the ferruginous
sandstone, but I observed in the bed of the river a trap-dyke extending
to the Bolloon ridge. Of the few low hills about the Lachlan it may be
observed that they generally range in lines crossing the bed of that
river. Mount Amyot is a ridge of this sort, being connected to the
southward with Mount Stewart and Nyororong; and to the northward with the
high ground separating the Bogan from the Goobang; the latter creek also
forcing its way through the same chain on its course westward. Mounts
Cunningham, Melville, and the small hills about them on each bank belong
to another system of ridges of similar character, but more broken up; and
the range of Kalingalungaguy with that of Bolloon form a third, also
intersected by the river.
OF THE PLAINS IN GENERAL.
The plains appear to be divided into several stages by these cross
ridges, which may have shut up the water of high floods in extensive
lakes during the existence of which the deposits formed the surface of
the present plains. Loose red sand also constantly forms low hills on the
borders of these plains; and it seems to have been derived from the
decomposition of the sandstone, and may be a diluvial or lacustrine
deposit. Blue clay appears in the lowest parts of the basin, and forms
the level parts of the plain, with concretions of marl in thin layers.
This has every appearance of a mud deposit; but its depth is greater than
the lowest part visible in the channel of the river. The parallel course
of small tributaries joining rivers, which seem to be the middle drain of
extensive plains, may have been marked out during the deposition of the
sedimentary matter as tributaries, on entering the channel of greater
streams, immediately become a portion of them; hence it is, the general
inclination being common to both, that such tributaries do not cross
these sediments of floods now termed plains in order to join the main
channel or river now remaining.
CHARACTER OF THE GOOBANG AND BOGAN.
Thus the Goobang, on entering the valley of the Lachlan, pursues a
parallel course until the ridge from Hurd's peak confines the plain on
the west and turns the Goobang into the main channel. The Bogan, on the
opposite side of the high land, may be said to belong to the basin of the
Macquarie, although it never joins that river, but merely skirts the
plains which, below Cambelego, may be all supposed to belong to the
original bed of the Macquarie. Throughout its whole course of 250 miles
the left bank of the Bogan is close to low hills, while the right adjoins
the plains of the Macquarie. The basin of the Macquarie, as shown by its
course near Mount Harris and Morrisset's ponds, falls northward, but that
of the Darling to the south-west. It is not at all surprising therefore
that the course of a tributary so much opposed, as the Macquarie is, to
that of the main stream, should spread into marshes: still less that, on
being at length choked with the deposit filling up these marshes, it
should work out for itself a channel less opposed to the course of the
main stream. Duck creek appears to be now the channel by which the floods
of the Macquarie join the Darling, and in a course much more direct than
that through the marshes. Hence the Bogan also, being still less opposed
to that of the Darling, finally enters that river without presenting the
anomaly of an invisible channel. In like manner, at a much lower point on
the Darling, the course of the little stream named Shamrock ponds, so
remarkable in this respect, may be understood. This forms a chain of
ponds, or a flowing stream, according to the seasons, between the plains
on the left bank of the Darling, and the rising grounds further to the
eastward: but instead of crossing the plains to join the main channel
this supposed tributary, after approaching within one or two miles of the
Darling where its plains were narrow, again receded from it as they
widened, and finally disappeared to the left where the plains were broad,
so that its junction with the Darling has not even yet been discovered.
On this principle the channel of the Lachlan, as soon as it enters the
plains belonging to the basin of the Murrumbidgee, may be sought for on
the northern skirts of these plains, although its floods may have been
found to spread in different channels more directly towards the main
stream.
At 12 1/4 miles we crossed a dry and shallow branch of the river, and at
14 1/2 miles we at length reached the main channel, and encamped where a
considerable pond of water remained in it, surrounded by abundance of
good grass. In this hole we caught some cod-perch (Gristes peelii).
April 12.
I sent back three men with two horses to bring on the light cart of Mr.
Stapylton, intending to await its arrival (which I expected would be in
five days) at the end of this day's journey. It was my object to encamp
as near as possible to Regent's Lake without diverging from the route
which I wished to follow with the carts, along the bank of the Lachlan.
WANT OF WATER IN THE RIVER.
For this purpose it was desirable to gain a bend of that river at least
as far west as the most western portion of the lake, according to Mr.
Oxley's survey. This distance we accomplished and more; for we were
obliged to proceed several miles further than I intended, and along the
bank of the river, because no water remained in its bed, until Mr.
Stapylton found a good pond where we encamped after a journey of 16 1/4
miles. Notwithstanding such an alarming want of water in the river, we
saw during this day's journey abundance in hollows on the surface of the
plains; a circumstance clearly evincing that this river, as Mr. Oxley has
truly stated, is not at all dependent for its supply on the rains falling
here. The deep cracks on the plains, so abundant as to impede the
traveller, seemed capable of absorbing not only the water which falls
upon them, but also any which may descend from the low hills around.
During our day's journey I found grey porphyry, the base consisting
apparently of granular felspar with embedded crystals of common felspar
and grains of hornblende.
April 13.
The night had been unusually warm, so much so that the thermometer stood
during the whole of it at 76 degrees (the usual noonday heat) and so
parching was the air that no one could sleep. A hot wind blew from the
north-east in the morning, and the barometer fell 4/10 of an inch; there
were also slight showers.
CUDJALLAGONG OR REGENT'S LAKE.
Leaving Mr. Stapylton in charge of the camp I went with a small mounted
party to Cudjallagong (Regent's lake) which I found to be nine miles to
the east-south-east of our tents. We passed by the place where
Cudjallagong creek first leaves the river and by which this lake is
supplied.
NEARLY DRY.
The uniformity of breadth and width in this streamlet and its tortuous
course were curious, especially as it must lead the floods of the Lachlan
almost directly back from the general direction of their current to
supply a lake. Thus the fluviatile process seemed to be reversed here,
the tendency of this river being not to carry surface waters off, but
rather to spread over land where none could otherwise be found, those
brought from a great distance. The particular position of this portion of
depressed surface being so far distant from the general course of the
river and the communication between it and the river by a backwater so
shallow and small, the lake can only receive a small share of the river
deposits and this only from the waters of its highest floods. We found
the "noble lake" (as it appeared when discovered by Mr. Oxley) now for
the most part a plain covered with luxuriant grass; some water, it is
true, lodged on the most eastern extremity, but nowhere to a greater
depth than a foot. Innumerable ducks took refuge there and also a great
number of black swans and pelicans, the last standing high upon their
legs above the remains of Regent's lake. We found the water perfectly
sweet even in this shallow state. It abounds with the large freshwater
mussel which was the chief food of the natives at the time we visited it.
DEAD TREES IN IT.
On its northern margin and a good way within the former boundary of the
lake stood dead trees of a full-grown size which had been apparently
killed by too much water, plainly showing, like the trees similarly
situated in Lake George and Lake Bathurst, to what long periods the
extremes of drought and moisture have extended, and may again extend, in
this singular country.
ROCKS NEAR IT.
That the lake is sometimes a splendid sheet of water was obvious in its
line of shores. These were overhung on the south-western side by rocky
eminences which in some parts consisted of a red calcareous tuff
containing fragments of schist; in others, of trap-rock or basalt which
was very hard and black. The opposite shore was lower, with water-worn
cliffs of reddish clay. By these cliffs and the beaches of drifted sand
under them, we perceived that the prevailing winds in all times of high
flood came from the south-west; the north-east side being very different
from the opposite, which was free from sand and bore no such marks of
chaffing waves.
TRAP AND TUFF.
At two places the banks are so low that in high floods the water must
flow over them to the westward and supply, as I supposed, Campbell's
lake, called Goorongully, and that to the north-east of Regent's lake.
Upon the whole it appeared that the trap which originally elevated the
western shore had either partially subsided, or that it was connected
with a crater or cavity of which the only vestige is this lake. The
calcareous conglomerate was unlike any rock I had seen elsewhere,
consisting in part of a tuff resembling the matrix of the fossil bones
found in limestone fissures. It is also worthy of notice that it appears
in some low undulations which extend from the lake to the river, and that
the channel conveying the waters to the lake lies in a hollow between
them.
NATIVES THERE.
On first approaching the lake we saw the natives in the midst of the
water, gathering the mussels (unio). I sent Piper forward to tell them
who we were, and thus, if possible, prevent any alarm at our appearance.
It began to rain heavily as we rode round; and although detached parties
of gins on the south shore had taken fright, left their huts and run to
the main camp, I was glad to find, when we rode up, that they remained
quietly there, under cover from the heavy rain. These huts or gunyas
consisted of a few green boughs which had just been put up for shelter
from the rain then falling. The tribe consisted of about a hundred.
WOMEN.
The females and children were in huts at some distance from those of the
men. A great number sat huddled together and cowered down under each
gunya, their skinny limbs being so folded before their bodies that the
head rested upon the knees. Among the faces were some which, being
hideously painted white (the usual badge of mourning) grinned horribly;
and the whole was so characteristic a specimen of life among the
aborigines that the heavy rain did not prevent me from making a sketch.
While I was thus employed the natives very hospitably made a fire in a
vacant gunya, evidently for the purpose of warming poor Barney, our
guide, who seemed miserably cold, having no covering except a jacket,
thoroughly wet.
MEN.
The men were in general strong, healthy, and muscular, and among them was
one who measured six feet four inches, as we afterwards ascertained at
our camp. My chief object in visiting the lake was to cultivate a good
understanding with these natives in the hopes that one of them might be
induced to accompany me down the Lachlan. The facility with which Piper,
then at a distance of 200 miles from his native place, Bathurst,
conversed with these people showed that their dialects are not so varied
as is commonly believed; and I had little doubt that he would be
understood, even on the banks of the Darling.
THEIR ACCOUNT OF THE COUNTRY LOWER DOWN. OOLAWAMBILOA.
He ascertained from one of these natives of Regent's lake that after
eight of our daily journeys, according to his comprehension, the bed of
the Lachlan would contain no water, and that we must go to the right
across "the middle," as Piper understood, reaching in four days more a
lagoon called Burrabidgin or Burrabadimba: that there I must leave the
carts and go with the native on horseback; and that in two days'
travelling at the rate we could then proceed, we should reach
Oolawambiloa, a very great water. They also said that water could be
found in the bush at the end of each of those four days' journey by one
of their tribe who would go with us and who had twice been at the great
water. All this news made me impatient to go on; but we had to remain a
day or two for the light cart. It rained heavily during the whole
afternoon; nevertheless a body of these natives accompanied us back,
keeping pace with our horses.
GAIETY OF THE NATIVES.
Each carried a burning torch of the resinous bark of the callitris, with
the blaze of which these natives seemed to keep their dripping bodies
warm, laughing heartily and passing their jokes upon us, our horses and
particularly upon our two guides of their own race, Piper and Barney, who
seemed anything but at home on horseback with wet clothes dripping about
them.
COLOUR LIGHT.
These natives were of a bright copper colour, so different from black
that one had painted his thighs with black chequered lines which made his
skin very much resemble the dress of a harlequin.
MR. STAPYLTON SURVEYS THE LAKE.
Mr. Stapylton proceeded with a party to make a survey of Cudjallagong
lake and creek, an operation which could be accomplished with less
inconvenience as that gentleman's equipment could not come up to us until
the 16th.
CAMPBELL'S LAKE.
He extended his survey to the small lake to the north-east, the first
discovered by Mr. Oxley and named by him Campbell's lake. Mr. Stapylton
found only a grassy plain without a drop of water. By an opening from
Cudjallagong lake he proceeded to another likewise seen by Mr. Oxley. It
had also become a verdant plain, nevertheless I thought it was necessary
to distinguish it on my map by its native name of Goorongully, as Mr.
Oxley had not supplied any to it.
April 15.
The sky had continued overcast although no rain fell after the evening of
the 13th. This day however the wind changed from north-west to west and
the sky became clear.
PIPER OBTAINS A GIN.
The surveying party returned from the lake by midday; and with it came
also Piper, my aboriginal interpreter, who had gone there chiefly with
the view of obtaining a gin, a speculation which I thought rather
hazardous on his part; yet, strange to say, a good strong woman marched
behind him into our camp, loaded with a new opossum-skin cloak, and
various presents, that had been given to Piper with her. How he contrived
to settle this important matter with a tribe to whom he was an utter
stranger could not be ascertained; for he left our party on the lake by
night, going quite alone to the natives, and returned from their camp in
the morning followed by his gin. To obtain a gin at Cudjallagong was the
great ambition of most of the natives we had left behind, among whom were
two, friends of Piper, whom I compelled to return, and who were most
anxious to accompany us that they might obtain wives at this place.
ASCEND GOULBURN RANGE.
April 16.
The morning was beautifully clear and I set out for the summit of
Goulburn range, named Yerrarar, fourteen miles distant from the camp. The
country we rode over was so thinly wooded that the hill was visible
nearly the whole way. The soil was good and firmer than the common
surface of the plains, the basis being evidently different, consisting
rather of trap than of the sandstone so prevalent elsewhere. At exactly
halfway we passed a hill of trap-rock, connected with a low range
extending towards still higher ground nearer Regent's lake, on the
eastern side. This was the first trap-rock I had seen besides that of the
lake during our whole journey down the Lachlan.
VIEW FROM THE SUMMIT.
On the summit I found hornstone and granular felspar. The whole of
Goulburn range consisted also of the same rock. It was rather
light-coloured, partially decomposed, and lay in rounded nodules and
boulders which formed however ridges across the slopes of the ground,
tending in general 12 or 14 degrees East of North. The hills were
everywhere rocky, so that the ascent cost us nearly an hour, and we were
forced to lead our horses; but it was well worth the pains for the summit
afforded a very extensive prospect. The most interesting feature in the
country was Regent's lake which, although fifteen miles distant, seemed
at our feet, reflecting like a mirror the trees on its margin; and on the
other side we looked into the unknown west, where the horizon seemed as
level as the ocean. In vain I examined it with a powerful telescope, in
search of some remote pic; only a level and thinly wooded country
extended beyond the reach even of telescopic vision.
With the spirit-level of my theodolite I found that the most depressed
part extended about due west by compass, a circumstance which first made
me imagine the Lachlan might have some channel in that direction.
WARRANARY.
Of the Mount Granard range I could see and intersect only that remarkable
cape-like point which was also the high land visible to the westward from
Mount Granard itself, being named Warranary by Barney. Closer to the
summit on which I stood were various ranges besides that of which it was
the highest point, but even this was not, strictly speaking, a range, for
it consisted on the southward of different masses, separated by portions
of low, level country.
A NEW CORREA.
I recognised many of my stations, such as Mount Cunningham, Bolloon,
Hurd's Pic, Mount Granard, etc. and having taken all the angles I could
with the theodolite, and gathered some specimens of a curious new
correa,* and a few bulbs of a pink-coloured amaryllis which grew on the
summit,** we descended and, just as it became quite dark, reached the
camp where I found that the men had arrived with Mr. Stapylton's light
cart, although his own horse, having strayed at Cordowe, did not
accompany it.
(*Footnote. Resembling C. rupicola of Cunningham, but with larger and
shorter flowers, and differently shaped leaves. Young shoots were covered
with a white down which easily rubbed off. C. leucoclada, Lindley
manuscripts; ramulis albo-tomentosis gracilibus, foliis ovato-oblongis
obtusissimis petiolatis supra glabris scabriusculis subtus tomentosis,
floribus subsessilibus, corolla campanulata quadrifida, calyce cupulari
truncato.)
(**Footnote. Calostemma carneum, Lindley manuscripts; foliis...tubo
perianthii limbo subaequali, corona truncata dentibus sterilibus nullis,
umbellis densis, pedicellis articulatis exterioribus longioribus. Flowers
pink.)