Journals of Australian Explorations Part 46

At 6.30 a.m. resumed our journey, steering east and south for two hours over level flats; then turning east crossed a steep range of sandstone hills, the strata nearly vertical; the strike north and south; thin veins of quartz intersected the rock in every direction, forming a complete network. The steepness of the country compelled us to turn north-east to the bank of the river, which we followed to the south-east; the banks were high and cut by deep gullies. At 12.30 p.m. the hills receded, and we entered some fine flats. Here I picked up a fragment of the shoulder-bone of a bullock, and observed several trees that had been cut with iron axes; and as the lat.i.tude corresponds with that of Dr.

Leichhardt's camp of the 26th April, 1845, the bone doubtless belonged to the bullock he killed at this place. At 1.5 camped on the bank of the river. The Moreton-Bay ash, poplar gum, and a rough-barked gum-tree with very green leaves, were added to the ironbark, bloodwood, and other eucalypti which const.i.tuted the forest, while casuarina and Melaleuca leucodendron grow in the beds of the larger watercourses. The channel of the river is about 150 yards, with a small stream winding along the sandy bed; much of the running water is due to the late rain, but it is evident from the character of the vegetation that it continues to run throughout the dry season.

Lat.i.tude by a Cygni 19 degrees 37 seconds.

18th October.

Continued our route at 6.25 a.m., steering nearly east till 8.30, when the river turned to the north round a range of sandstone hills, crossing which, reached the river again at 10.5 flowing south, with fine openly-timbered flats on the banks; steering south till 1.0 p.m., camped on the bank of the river just below a ridge of slate rock which crossed the channel. From the hills, at 9.0, we saw a fine valley joining that of the Burdekin from the east; it was bounded by a steep range to the south, which terminated two miles from the river. South-west of our position were several flat-topped hills, which appeared to be a continuation of the range crossed yesterday. To the south only a few distant hills were visible, the view being obstructed by trees. The flats on the banks of the river are well gra.s.sed and openly timbered with ironbark, Moreton-Bay ash, bloodwood, and poplar gum; the soil varying from a soft brown loam into which our horses sank deeply, to a firm black or brown clay loam; the ranges were stony and thinly gra.s.sed; the timber box and ironbark.

The geological features consist of a fine-grained sandstone interstratified with slate and coa.r.s.e conglomerates. The sandstone is intersected in every direction with veins of quartz, which do not appear to enter the slate. The dip of the strata is nearly vertical, the strike north and south. The whole appear to have been much disturbed and altered; neither granite nor trap has been observed since yesterday morning. Consumed the last of the dried horse-meat, and increased the ration of flour to one pound per diem.

19th October (Sunday).

Remained at the camp to rest the party; the day was cloudy, with variable breeze from the south-east to north-east and north; no observations for lat.i.tude could be taken till early on Monday morning, and even then the alt.i.tudes were imperfect; the stream of running water in the bed of the river has increased, but is still quite clear.

Lat.i.tude by Saturn 19 degrees 7 minutes 19 seconds.

CROSS THE CLARK RIVER.

20th October.

Resumed our journey at 6.40 a.m., steering south-east through fine gra.s.sy flats till 10.0, when we crossed the Clark River, and altered the course to east over well-gra.s.sed flats, to the foot of a rocky range of sandstone hills, which we reached at noon, and ascending by a steep spur, at 2.30 p.m. attained the highest ridge; here sandstone was the prevailing rock; xanthorrhoea, silver-leafed ironbark, and triodia const.i.tuted the princ.i.p.al vegetation; descending gradually, at 3.30 reached a small creek with a patch of good green gra.s.s on its banks, and at 3.45 halted at some small waterholes, which appeared to be permanent; except near the creek, the country was poor and stony, with a forest of ironbark and box trees; the country between the Clark and the Burdekin appears to be of excellent quality, consisting of well-gra.s.sed flats, timbered with ironbark, Moreton-Bay ash, poplar, gum, and box trees. The Clark is about 100 yards wide, with a sandy bed crossed by ridges of slate rock; the banks are sixty to eighty feet high, and the marks of last year's flood thirty to thirty-five feet, the trees being bent and broken by the force of the current; more water appears to come down the Clark during floods, but the Burdekin has a more constant stream, the Clark containing only shallow pools of water, separated by dry sand and rock; after leaving the immediate flats of the river the country was very poor and stony; the late rains had not extended so far, and the gra.s.s had the dry and parched appearance which characterised the country on the banks of the Gilbert.

Lat.i.tude by a Pegasi 19 degrees 14 minutes 2 seconds.

FRIENDLY NATIVES.

21st October.

6.15 a.m., resumed our journey and traversed an inferior country of sandstone and porphyry; box, silver-leafed ironbark, and triodia characterized the vegetation; in crossing one of these gullies, in which were some pools of water, Bowman's horse fell over the bank into the pool, and he got some severe bruises; at 10.15 came on the river, where it ran over a ledge of rocks forming a succession of rapids, below which it spread out into a broad sheet of sand a quarter of a mile wide, and turned to the south. As Bowman had fallen some distance in the rear, I selected the first suitable spot, and at 11.0 encamped, and shortly after Mr. H. Gregory came in with Bowman to camp. On the bank of the river we saw two black gins, who climbed a tree on our approach, and in the afternoon came to the camp with an old man, and after some unintelligible conversation departed; they had neither clothes or weapons, except a throwing-stick of the same form as those used by the blacks of the southern sh.o.r.e of the Gulf of Carpentaria. The geological character of the country has been sandstone, much altered by contact with porphyry which has been forced through it; both dip and strike are confused, and could not be ascertained to have any general angle or direction, except in the bed of the river, where the strata dipped 10 degrees to the north, but in the hills, on the left bank below the camp, the strata was horizontal; the river is now 150 yards wide at the narrowest parts, a small stream of water, one foot deep and ten to twenty yards wide, running in a winding course through the sand, and sometimes expanding into sheets of water occupying the whole breadth of the channel.

Lat.i.tude by a Pegasi 19 degrees 16 minutes 22 seconds.

22nd October.

At 6.15 a.m. steered south and followed the right bank of the river; for the first hour the country was hilly on both banks, with deep gullies; it then became more level, and opened into flats, well gra.s.sed; the timber box, ironbark, and Moreton-Bay ash; the soil a light brown loam in some parts, sandy and very soft from the numerous excavations of the funnel ant. These flats extended one to two miles back and then rose into low ridges of poor land, timbered with box and ironbark; crossed a sandy creek coming from the west, and at 1.30 p.m. camped on the right bank of the river. A short distance from the camp surprised a black and his gin and a child; the man climbed a tree and the woman ran off with the child, leaving a small water vessel, hollowed out of a piece of wood, and a calabash full of water. The rocks near the last camp were sandstone or porphyry; in the only exposed section the sandstone dipped to the north 5 degrees to 15 degrees. We also crossed a hill of porphyry which was remarkable for the regularity of cleavage into thick lamina, which were vertical, with a north and south strike; but though it had the appearance of a stratified rock, its structure was perfectly crystalline. About noon, granite, containing large plates of mica, was observed in some of the gullies.

Lat.i.tude by e Pegasi 19 degrees 29 minutes 43 seconds.

23rd October.

At 7.0 a.m. steered south-south-east and south-east over ridges of sandstone, timbered with ironbark and thinly gra.s.sed, for an hour and a half; again struck the river and pa.s.sed at the foot of some limestone hills and ridges; this limestone contained fragments of sh.e.l.ls and coral.

Altering the course to south, traversed fine open flats half a mile to a mile wide, beyond which the country rose into low ridges of limestone. At noon basalt appeared covering the limestone and sandstone. The steep slope which formed the boundary of this rock was very rugged; but the level surface was covered with black soil and well gra.s.sed. At 12.55 p.m.

camped in a fine gra.s.sy flat, walled in by steep rocks of basalt. We experienced some difficulty in watering the horses, as the bank of the river was so steep that they frequently fell back into the river in ascending it. The limestone rocks seen on this day's journey appear to rise from beneath the sandstones, some of which are very hard and close-grained; it dips about 10 degrees to the west and some of the adjacent sandstones 20 degrees west, in well-defined strata. The basalt covers all the other rocks, filling up the former inequalities of the surface and forming a perfectly level plain; where the softer sandstones were in contact, they were only baked into a coa.r.s.e brick-like ma.s.s, which had had much the appearance of having been formed from the alluvial banks of the river.

Lat.i.tude by e Pegasi and a Gruis 19 degrees 42 minutes 10 seconds; variation of compa.s.s 6 degrees 15 minutes east.

DUCKS, GEESE, AND PELICANS.

24th October.

Leaving our camp at 6.0 a.m., steered south-south-east over well-gra.s.sed basaltic flats, timbered thinly with ironbark, etc.; the soil a red loam.

At 9.0 a.m. came on a large reedy lagoon or swamp with considerable patches of shallow open water, on which were great numbers of ducks, geese, pelicans, etc. A broad and deep stream flowed from it to the south-east, varying from thirty to eighty yards in width, with a thick belt of reeds along the margin, beyond which the ground rose about fifty feet to the level surface of the basaltic plain. Following the winding of the stream till 10.35 a.m., crossed it at a ledge of basaltic rocks, when it formed a fine rapid with vertical fall of eight to ten feet. Beyond the running channel a dry sandy creek ran parallel at a distance of 80 to 100 yards from it. Our course was now between the creek and the steep rocky edge of the basaltic plain, which was too rugged for the horses to ascend till 11.20 a.m., when, crossing the basalt, we pa.s.sed to the south of a shallow lake about half a mile in diameter. The country now became scrubby, with patches of gra.s.s. Altering the course more to the east, we again entered an open ironbark forest; at 2.0 p.m. crossed a large dry sandy creek, beyond which the country was poor and sandy, with panda.n.u.s growing on the ridges. On the bank of the creek we observed the marks of a recent camp of a large party of blacks, and a patch of ground twenty yards by thirty yards cleared of gra.s.s, and the surface sc.r.a.ped up into ridges, the whole covered with footprints, which showed that some dance or ceremony had been performed by a large number of men. At 3.30 p.m.

entered a dense scrub of small crooked eucalypti and acacia, with a few sterculia. After losing an hour in attempting to penetrate the scrub, we turned north to the dry creek and followed it down till 7.0 p.m., when we camped near a pool of water; but the night was so dark that the horses could not be watered with safety, the banks being very steep and rendered slippery by a slight shower.

25th October.

The gra.s.s having been burnt near the camp, the horses had strayed considerably, and we did not start till 7.30 a.m., when, turning east, we soon came on the Burdekin, which now trended to the south-south-west and south-east; the basalt coming close to the river, we were compelled to cross a very rough ridge and came on a deep pool of water eighty yards wide and half a mile long; it terminated in a dry stony channel which joined a sandy creek, and entered the river. Crossing a granite ridge, we camped in a fine gra.s.sy flat on the bank of the Burdekin, the banks being high and steep, but the water easy of access.

Lat.i.tude by a Pegasi 19 degrees 58 minutes 48 seconds.

26th October (Sunday).

Remained at the camp. During the day there was a succession of showers without thunder, the clouds and wind from the east. At 10.0 p.m. the rain ceased, but the night continued cloudy.

GOOD GRa.s.sY COUNTRY.

27th October.

The morning was cloudy, with light rain till 7.0 a.m.; at 7.30 steered east-south-east and east over fine gra.s.sy ridges of granite and trap formation, timbered with ironbark, box, Moreton-Bay ash, and bloodwood; the river taking a sweep to the north of the track, but at 10.40 came again on its banks. The course was now south till 2.15 p.m., when we crossed a large stream-bed from the south-west, with a sandy and rocky bed forty yards wide, which contained a few shallow pools of water. Below the junction of this tributary the river turned to the east and east-north-east, and we crossed low ridges of granite porphyry and trap, which came down from the high land to the bank of the river; at 3.30 encamped. The whole of the country traversed this day was well gra.s.sed, except about a mile of bauhinia scrub, which did not appear of any considerable extent. Ironbark, box, bloodwood, and Moreton-Bay ash formed the princ.i.p.al trees with which the country was openly timbered. The prevailing rock granite, traversed by numerous veins of dark trap, and in the latter part of the day porphyry and schist appeared; concretions of limestone were frequent near the trap veins. The soil was somewhat light and gritty loam, except on the trap-rocks, where it was rich black soil.

The available country here appears more extensive than higher up the river; more rain has fallen in the early part of the season, and the gra.s.s is rich and green, especially where it had been previously burnt off.

Lat.i.tude by a Pegasi 20 degrees 7 minutes 23 seconds; variation of compa.s.s 6 degrees 20 minutes east.

28th October.

We resumed our journey at 6.25 a.m., steering an east-south-east course, but after crossing some fine gra.s.sy ironbark ridges, entered a dense scrub of acacia, sterculia, bauhinia, and th.o.r.n.y shrubs. Turning north, with some difficulty extricated the party from the scrub, which we then skirted to the east along the bank of the river till 9.10, when the scrub receded, and fine openly-timbered ironbark ridges replaced the scrub.

These ridges were well-gra.s.sed, the rocks granite, trap, and porphyry.

The country generally appeared well suited for stock; on both sides of the river no high ranges were visible. At 2.45 p.m. camped on a fine gra.s.sy flat, part of which having been burnt, was now covered with excellent green gra.s.s. The day was cool, with light showers from the east. The character of the granite was fine-grained, and intersected by veins and ma.s.ses of trap, and in the latter part of the day's journey porphyry was superinc.u.mbent. In the scrubs sandstone existed; it was coa.r.s.e-grained, and contained worn boulders of trap, quartz, granite, slate, and hard sandstone.

29th October.

As the river below turned to the east of its general course, at 6.20 a.m.

steered east-south-east and south-east till 9.30, when we again came on the river trending south. The country consisted of openly-timbered and gra.s.sy ironbark ridges, but not equally good with that pa.s.sed during the last two days. The river at 10.0 turned to the south-east, along the foot of some steep rocky hills of porphyry resting on granite, and at 11.45 was joined by a dry creek twenty yards wide, coming from the south-west; our course was now east-south-east, pa.s.sing with difficulty between the river and a steep granite hill, beyond which the country became more sandy, and rose to the south in long gentle slopes scantily gra.s.sed, and timbered with bloodwood, ironbark, Moreton-Bay ash, and poplar gum, with a few panda.n.u.s; an immense number of deep gullies intersected the ground, cutting deeply into the granite rock beneath the soil, and rendering it difficult to traverse. A fine range of openly-wooded and gra.s.sy hills rose about two to three miles from the left bank of the river, attaining an elevation of 500 to 800 feet above the valley; these hills are probably porphyritic; they are the Porter Range of Leichhardt. At 2.45 p.m. camped on the bank of the Burdekin River.

THE SUTTOR RIVER. MOUNT MCCONNELL.

30th October.

At 6.30 a.m. steered north 120 degrees east, but at 7.0 a.m. came on the river trending south, the country gradually became more rugged, and rocky hills closed in on both banks forming a deep gorge through which the river forced its way. By keeping at the back of some hills we avoided much of the rocky ground, crossing at noon a high ridge, from which the view extended to the junction of the Burdekin and Suttor Rivers, Mount McConnell bearing 159 degrees magnetic, and the west end of Porter Range 334 degrees magnetic. A long range seemed to extend south from Robey Range, and bound the valley of the Upper Burdekin, while a high range appeared to trend north-east from the eastern side of the Suttor Valley, and to turn the Burdekin to the north of east. Continuing our route nearly south-east over steep rocky ridges, we encamped in a fine gra.s.sy flat, a quarter of a mile from the Suttor River, at 1.50 p.m., Mount McConnell bearing north 172 degrees east magnetic. About 10.0 a.m. we heard some blacks calling in our rear, and soon after came in sight, but would not allow any of the party to approach them, till one of the hors.e.m.e.n cantering up quickly, some of the blacks climbed into trees, where, after making signs to them that it was desirable that they should pursue an opposite route to ours, we left them to descend at leisure. The country pa.s.sed this day was of a broken character, with deep gullies and rocky hills near the river, but was generally well gra.s.sed and openly timbered with ironbark and Moreton-Bay ash. Granite rock forms the base of the hills, and was covered by ma.s.ses of porphyry, forming hills with rocky summits of columnar structure, as at the head of the Gilbert River a dark-coloured trap changing into porphyry formed some of the lower ridges, and was largely developed on the bank of the Suttor. Thin veins of calcareous spar and quartz intersected the granite. The bed of the Burdekin where we last saw it, one mile above the junction of the Suttor, was about half a mile wide with a stream of water varying from twenty yards wide to the whole breadth of the channel, which was very level and sandy. The Suttor is but a small river compared with the Burdekin. Near the camp it formed some fine reaches of water 180 yards wide, but of no great depth. The trees on its banks were much broken and bent by a violent flood which had occurred within the year. Considering the number of miles we have travelled along the banks of the Burdekin, few impediments have been encountered, while the extent of country suited for squatting purposes is very considerable--water forming a never-failing stream throughout the whole distance.

Lat.i.tude by a Gruis and a Pegasi 20 degrees 36 minutes 20 seconds; variation of compa.s.s 70 degrees east.

THE FIRST BRIGALOW SCRUB.

31st October.

A rainy night was followed by a thick fog in the morning, so that when we started at 6.30 a.m. it was with difficulty the deep gullies on the banks of the Suttor were avoided; steering south-west for one hour, crossed to the right bank of the Suttor, and then by an average south course pa.s.sed to the west of Mount McConnell, which, by its isolated character and height (about 600 feet above the river) forms a very conspicuous landmark. It is wooded to the summit, and has fine patches of gra.s.s on the slopes, with cliffs of porphyry near the upper part, this being the prevailing rock; on the right bank white shaly rocks and dark trap, with veins of calcareous spar and limestone, prevailed on the left bank of the Suttor; the country on both sides well gra.s.sed and openly timbered with ironbark. The bed of the river was very irregular and sandy, with small shallow pools of water at intervals; at 11.0 the river came from the south-west, but continuing a south course we crossed some fine basaltic plains, covered with fine gra.s.s and separated by open box forest; at noon crossed a sandstone hill, the base of which was porphyry; traversing ironbark ridges for an hour, we crossed a sandy creek coming from the east, and at 1.0 p.m. encountered the first brigalow scrub; through this scrub we steered south-west till 3.40, and camped on a small dry creek with a narrow gra.s.sy flat; water was obtained from a small gully where it had lodged during a shower on the previous night. The country till we reached the brigalow scrub was well adapted for pastoral purposes; the rock trap, slate, and porphyry, with veins of limestone. The brigalow scrub grows on the detritus of a coa.r.s.e conglomerate, the larger boulders of which lay scattered over the surface of the ground; these boulders consist of trap, porphyry, sandstone, and quartz, and show marks of being water-worn. A range of hills, apparently sandstone, bounds the valley to the east from three to seven miles from the river. They have no great elevation, and we did not obtain a good view of them from any point.

Lat.i.tude by Capella 20 degrees 52 minutes 25 seconds.