Ludwig Leichhardt

“ Evening approaches; the sun has sunk below the horizon for some time, but still he strains his eye through the gloom for the dark verdure of a creek, or strives to follow the arrow-like flight of a pigeon, the flapping of whose wings has filled him with a sudden hope, from which he relapses again into a still greater sadness; with a sickened heart he drops his head to a broken and interrupted rest, whilst his horse is standing hobbled at his side, unwilling from excessive thirst to feed on the dry grass. ”

“ But suddenly, the note of Grallina Australis, the call of cockatoos, or the croaking of frogs, is heard, and hopes are bright again; water is certainly at hand; the spur is applied to the flank of the tired beast, which already partakes in his rider's anticipations, and quickens his pace--and a lagoon, a creek, or a river, is before him. The horse is soon unsaddled, hobbled, and well washed ”

“ I travelled west by north about eight miles, along the foot of Bastard-box and silver-leaved Ironbark ridges. The country was exceedingly fine; the ground was firm; the valley from two to three miles broad, clothed with rich grass, and sprinkled with apple-tree, flooded-gum, and Bastard-box; the hills formed gentle ascents, and were openly timbered. The water-holes seemed to be constant; they are very deep, densely surrounded by reeds, and with numerous heaps of broken muscle-shells round their banks. ”

“ Swarms of sheldrakes were perching in the trees, and, as we approached, they rose with a loud noise, flying up and down the lagoon, and circling in the air around us. A chain of water-holes, fringed with Mangrove myrtle, changed, farther to the westward, into a creek, which had no connection with the river, but was probably one of the heads of the Nassau. We crossed it, and encamped on a water-hole covered with Nymphaeas, about a mile from the river, whose brushy banks would have prevented us from approaching it, had we wished to do so. ”

“ It was a broad creek, with a stream about three feet deep, and from seven to ten yards wide, with a firm and sandy bed; its banks were shaded by large gum-trees, and Sarcocephalus; and thick reeds, and a stiff blady grass fringed its waters. The frequent smoke which rose from every part of the valley, showed that it was well inhabited. Brown met two natives, with their gins and children, but they ran away as soon as they saw him. At sunset, a great number of them had collected near our camp, and set fire to the grass, which illumined the sky, as it spread in every direction. ”

“ After passing the gullies in the immediate neighbourhood of the river, we came to sandstone ridges covered with an almost impenetrable scrub; chiefly composed of stiff and prickly shrubs, many of them dead, with dry branches filling the intervals. As no grass grew on the poor soil, the bush-fires--those scavengers of the forest--are unable to enter and consume the dead wood, which formed the principal obstacle to our progress. Difficult, however, as it was to penetrate such thickets with pack-bullocks, I had no choice left, and therefore proceeded in the same direction. ”

“ Not being able to discover a good slope on which our bullocks could travel, I descended at once into the gully, and followed it in all its windings; knowing well from experience that it is easier to find a passage up a mountain range than down it. The gully had all the characters of those of the Boyd; the same sandstone rock, the same abruptness, and the same vegetation; excepting, perhaps, a new Grevillea, with pinnatifid leaves and yellowish-white woolly flowers, which we found here. ”

“ Here the drooping tea-tree, growing in a sandy peat, attained a stately height. The sandy slopes around the swamps were covered with Banksia, the Melaleuca gum, and Pandanus, and a rich profusion of grasses and low sedges surrounded the deep pools of spring water. These spots, which bore the marks of being much visited by the natives, were like oases in the dry, dull, sandy forest, and formed delightful shady groves, pleasing to every sense. Kangaroos and various birds, particularly the white cockatoo, were numerous ”

“ The absence of the stars gives us painful longings, the nature of which we frequently do not understand, but which we call home sickness:--and their sudden re-appearance touches us like magic, and fills us with delight. Every new moon also was hailed with an almost superstitious devotion, and my Blackfellows vied with each other to discover its thin crescent, and would be almost angry with me when I strained my duller eyes in vain to catch a glimpse of its faint light in the brilliant sky which succeeds the setting of the sun. ”

“ The natives were remarkably kind and attentive, and offered us the rind of the rose-coloured Eugenia apple, the cabbage of the Seaforthia palm, a fruit which I did not know, and the nut-like swelling of the rhizoma of either a grass or a sedge. The last had a sweet taste, was very mealy and nourishing, and the best article of the food of the natives we had yet tasted. They called it "Allamurr" (the natives of Port Essington, "Murnatt") , and were extremely fond of it. The plant grew in depressions of the plains, where the boys and young men were occupied the whole day in digging for it. ”

“ When we left the lake, Charley thought he could distinguish a plain to the northward; and, riding in that direction, I was agreeably surprised to find that the scrub did not extend more than a mile and a-half from the river; and that, beyond it, plains and open forest extended far to the northward; and fine ridges with most excellent feed, to the southward. The traveller who is merely following the course of a river, is unable to form a correct idea of the country farther off, unless hills are near, from which he may obtain extensive views. ”

“ Extensive flats of rotten ground, but beautifully clothed with tufts of grass, openly timbered with Moreton Bay ash and flooded-gum, ascend into gentle grassy slopes of silver-leaved Ironbark and bloodwood, and then rise into sandstone ridges with Acacia thickets and shrubby plants peculiar to the sandstone formation. An Acacia with very large falcate, glaucous phyllodia, and the Euphorbiaceous Severn-tree, were very plentiful; and Crinum grew in thousands on the sandy flats. After a very hot day, the night was bright and dewy: a light breeze was felt at 8 o'clock, which cooled the air. ”

“ About five miles north-west by west from our camp, we discovered an extensive valley with large lagoons and lakes, and a most luxuriant vegetation, bounded by blue distant ranges, and forming the most picturesque landscape we had yet met with. A chain of lagoons connected by a reedy brook followed the outlines of the table land, along the foot of its steep slopes. We descended by a tolerably gentle slope into the valley, and encamped near the reedy brook, which must be the same as that on which, lower down, our last camp was formed. Water, grass, hills, mountains, plains, forest land ”

“ It is difficult to describe the impressions which the range of noble peaks, rising suddenly out of a comparatively level country, made upon us. We had travelled so much in a monotonous forest land, with only now and then a glimpse of distant ranges through the occasional clearings in the dismal scrub, that any change was cheering. Here an entirely open country--covered with grass, and apparently unbounded to the westward ”

“ Charley, Brown, and John, had gone into the brush to a camp of flying-foxes, and returned with twelve, which we prepared for luncheon, which allowed our bullock time to recover. They gave an almost incredible account of the enormous numbers of flying-foxes, all clustering round the branches of low trees, which drooped by the weight so near to the ground that the animals could easily be killed with endgels. The Seaforthia palm raised its elegant crown far above the patches of vine brush which we passed at the river side of the ridges. ”

“ At the latter part of the journey, I had, as it were, retraced the whole course of my life, and I was now, in my dreams, almost invariably in Sydney, canvassing for support, and imagining that, although I had left my camp, yet that I should return with new resources to carry us through the remainder of our journey. It was very remarkable, that all my companions were almost invariably anticipating the end of our journey, dreaming that they reached the sea-coast, and met with ships, or that they were in Port Essington and enjoying the pleasures of civilized life ”

“ The number of kites was in a fair proportion to that of the geese; and dozens of them were watching us from the neighbouring trees.
We found a new Eugenia, a tree of rather stunted growth, with broad opposite leaves, and fruit of the size of an apple, of a delicate rose-colour, and when ripe, a most delicious refreshment during a hot day. We had frequently met with this tree on sandstone ridges, and in sandy soils, but had never before found it in fruit. The day was distressingly hot, but we had several light showers during the afternoon. ”

“ Their summits were surrounded by perpendicular precipices, from the foot of which steep rocky, but uniform slopes went down to the level country. Thick high reeds covered the approaches of the river, and the lower parts of the gullies; and noble Casuarinas rivalled the drooping tea-tree in beauty. Grevillea pungens (R. Br.) was observed on the hills; it is, therefore, not particular to the coast scrub. A species of native tobacco, with smaller blossoms than that of the Hunter, and with its radical leaves spreading close over the ground, was growing on the open spaces round the water-holes. ”

“ The country to the south of the last creek changed to a succession of plains of various sizes, extending mostly to the westward, and very open undulations scattered over with rather stunted trees of Grevillea mimosoides, G. ceratophylla, Terminalia, Bauhinia, and Balfouria? an apocynaceous tree. And again we passed over box and apple-gum flats, which, by their rich verdure, refreshed the eye tired with the uniform yellow colour of the dry grass, in which the whole country was clothed. We saw the bush fires of the natives every where around us ”

“ I called these plains "Calvert's Plains," after my companion, Mr. Calvert. Farther to the westward we passed over open ridges, covered with Bastard-box and silver-leaved Ironbark: the former tree grows generally in rich black soil, which appeared several times in the form of ploughed land, well known, in other parts of the colony, either under that name, or under that of "Devil-devil land," as the natives believe it to be the work of an evil spirit. ”

“ Farther on we came to a second hole better supplied, and to a third; and at last Charley cried out, "Look there, Sir! what big water!" and a long broad sheet of water stretched in sweeps through a dense Bauhinia and Bricklow scrub, which covered its steep banks. It is a singular character of this remarkable country, that extremes so often meet; the most miserable scrub, with the open plain and fine forest land; and the most paralysing dryness, with the finest supply of water.
Swarms of ducks covered the margin of the lake; pelicans, beyond the reach of shot, floated on its bosom ”

“ As our horses had been driven far from the camp by the grey horse-fly and by a large brown fly with green eyes, which annoyed us particularly before sunset, and shortly after sunrise, we had to wait a long time for them, and employed ourselves, in the meanwhile, with cutting and eating the tops of Livistona. Many were in blossom, others were in fruit; the latter is an oblong little stone fruit of very bitter taste. Only the lowest part of the young shoots is eatable, the remainder being too bitter. I think they affected the bowels even more than the shoots of the Corypha palm. ”

“ The whole country was composed of sandstone and indurated clay, with very distinct stratification. The layers of clay were white, grey, or slate-coloured; with many shining leaflets of mica.
The days were very hot; the east-breeze very strong during the afternoon, and particularly towards sunset; the nights were warm, clear, and without dew.
Some sheldrakes and wallabies were seen, and a bustard was shot by Charley: large fish were splashing in the water. I gathered the large vine-bean, with green blossoms, which had thick pods containing from one to five seeds. ”

“ The nature of the soil was easily distinguished by its vegetation: the Bastard box, and Poplar gum grew on a stiff clay; the narrow-leaved Ironbark, the Bloodwood, and the Moreton Bay ash on a lighter sandy soil, which was frequently rotten and undermined with numerous holes of the funnel ant. Noble trees of the flooded-gum grew along the banks of the creeks, and around the hollows, depending rather upon moisture, than upon the nature of the soil. ”

“ These ridges were on all sides surrounded with scrub, which did not flourish where the basaltic formation prevailed. Broad but shallow channels, deepening from time to time into large water-holes, follow in a parallel direction the many windings of the creek, with which they have occasionally a small communication. They seem to be the receptacles of the water falling within the scrub during the rainy season: their banks are sometimes very high and broken, and the bed is of a stiff clay, like that of the scrub, and is scattered over with pebbles of quartz and conglomerate. ”

“ In looking for water, my search was first made in the neighbourhood of hills, ridges, and ranges, which from their extent and elevation were most likely to lead me to it, either in beds of creeks, or rivers, or in water-holes, parallel to them. In an open country, there are many indications which a practised eye will readily seize: a cluster of trees of a greener foliage, hollows with luxuriant grass, eagles circling in the air, crows, cockatoos, pigeons (especially before sunset) , and the call of Grallina Australis and flocks of little finches, would always attract our attention. ”

“ But, independent of the fatigues of travelling, the relaxing and enervating influence of the climate was as visible in our cattle as in ourselves.
The apple-gum, a bloodwood, and the poplar-gum (?) grew round our camp; the grasses were tender, but formed distinct tufts; Crinum was plentiful.
The night breeze set in at a quarter to 9 o'clock from north-east, or north by east, strong, full and warm; there was a slight moisture in the air before daybreak, which rendered our almost dry meat a little damp again. ”