Lake Eyre

“ As far as the Flinders range extends northwards, the water supply of the traveller in that region is obtained from its watercourses. The country beyond, where this long range falls off, continues an extensive open stony plateau or plain, occasionally intersected with watercourses, the course of the line of road being west of north. Most of these watercourses on the plains fall into Lake Eyre, another and more northerly salt depression. A curious limestone formation now occurs, and for some hundreds of miles the whole country is open and studded with what are called mound-springs. ”

“ The enormous coast-line from Spencer's Gulf to King George's Sound is not broken by the mouth of any stream. Such rainfall as there is in this district must drain either into the sea by subterranean channels, or into the inland marshy depressions called Lake Eyre, Lake Gairdner, and Lake Amadeus, which are sometimes extremely shallow sheets of water, sometimes grassy plains, and sometimes desert. ”

“ It is entirely different in all essential features from the great alluvial plains. Its prevailing aspect is characterized by flat and terraced hills, capped by desert sandstone, with stone-covered flats stretching over long distances. The country round Lake Eyre, where some of the land is actually below sea-level, comes under this heading. The higher steppes, as far as they are known, consist of Ordovician and Cambrian rocks, with an average elevation of 1500 to 3000 ft. ”

“ The lake on its eastern and southern sides, is bounded by a high sandy ridge, with salsolae and some brushwood growing upon it, but without any other vegetation. The other shores presented, as far as I could judge, a very similar appearance; and when I ascended several of the heights in Flinders range--from which the views were very extensive, and the opposite shores of the lake seemed to be distinctly visible--no rise or hill of any kind could ever be perceived, either to the west, the north, on the east; the whole region around appeared to be one vast, low, and dreary waste. ”

“ The interception of the singular basin of Lake Torrens, which I had discovered formed a barrier to the westward, and commencing near the head of Spencer's Gulf, was connected with it by a narrow channel of mud and water. This lake apparently increased in width as it stretched away to the northward, as far as the eye could reach, when viewed from the farthest point attained by me in 1839, named by Colonel Gawler, Mount Eyre. ”

“ A few pieces of what appeared drift timber were also lying about its surface. The sand, as we advanced farther east, became more loose and drifting, and not a blade of grass, or any species of vegetation, was visible, rendering hopeless any attempt to cross it with horses. This point of the lake shore, being by Mr. Eyre's chart about thirty miles to the westward of where I found it, I thought it advisable to push further north, in the direction of the highest point of the range, which I imagined was probably his Mount Serle ”

“ It became, therefore, imperative on me to remove the horses as speedily as possible. Should circumstances permit, I shall, however, endeavour to visit Lake Torrens again, on my return from the northern interior. After leaving the lake I spent many days in examining the country to the northward of our depot. Its character seemed to vary but little; barren sandy plains still formed the lower level, and the hills constituting the continuation of Flinders Range were still composed of quartz and ironstone. ”

“ True the whole of the drainage from Flinders range, as far as was yet known, emptied into its basin, but such was the arid and sandy nature of the region through which it passed, that a great part of the moisture was absorbed, whilst the low level of the basin of the lake, apparently the same as that of the sea itself, forbade even the most distant hope of the water being fresh, should any be found in its bed. ”

“ A strong and ready hand is in charge to-day, however, and “black care” is a thing impossible on board, as the little craft goes bounding out upon the bosom of the loch.
And fair as a romance is the scene—the clear lake winding away among the mountains, its surface broken only by bosky islets that float in their own reflections—while the sunny air is full of the awe and silence of the Bens.
The only spot in all the scene where silence reigns not is on board the little boat herself; and a continuous ripple of merry chat and172 joyous laughter floats away astern with her foam. ”

“ It was to this chain of hills that I now looked forward as the stepping-stone to the interior. In its continuation were centered all my hopes of success, because in its recesses alone could I hope to obtain water and grass for my party. The desert region I had seen around its base, gave no hope of either, and though the basin of Lake Torrens appeared to be increasing so much in extent to the northward, I had seen nothing to indicate its terminating within any practicable distance, in a deep or navigable water. ”

“ From the abundance of fresh water at Lake Newland, and the many patches of tolerably grassy country around, a very fair station might be formed, either for sheep or cattle.
November 1.--Leaving Lake Newland we passed through a scrubby country, which extended close under the coast hummocks for five miles, and then ascended a high barren range. The view from this was extensive, but only over a mass of low and desolate scrub, with the exception of one or two elevations to the north and north-east. ”

“ Having concealed the supplies landed from the cutter, Eyre sent the vessel back to Adelaide with despatches, and moved the whole of the men out to the pool of water that he had just found. From this vantage point he made various scouting trips with the black boy, both to the eastward and westward of north. The 2nd of September found him on the summit of an elevation which he appropriately named Mount Hopeless, gazing at the salt lake that he now thought hemmed him in on three sides, even to the eastward. ”

“ Lake Torrens is evidently the basin into which all the waters from Flinders range fall, and its extent is very considerable; in fact, where I last saw it to the north, it was impossible to say whether it terminated or not, from the very great distance it was off. The country lying between Flinders range on the one side, and the table land on the other, and north of Spencer's Gulf, is of so low and so level a character that the eye alone is not a sufficient guide as to the direction in which the fall may be. ”

“ Eyre did not believe in the possibility of establishing a practicable route, but urged, through the press, the desirability of exploring the vast regions to the north, which he anticipated would afford a good and profitable field for adventurous enterprise. He offered to lead an expedition which should explore the country around the great salt lake lying to the north-west of the settled portion of the colony, and to which the name of Lake Torrens had been given. ”

“ Around the margins of the lakes we again found timber--the tea-tree and the bastard gum. The water in the lakes was salt, but some slight elevations of granite afforded us in their hollows an abundance of water for ourselves and horses. The traces of natives were numerous and recent, but yet we saw none. Swans, ducks, and wild fowl of various kinds were in great numbers, and kept up an unceasing noise at night whilst passing from one lake to the other. ”

“ Mr. Eyre left Adelaide on the 18th of June, 1840, to attempt to penetrate into the interior of Australia. He advanced to Lake Torrens, and traced its shores for nearly 400 miles; but finding himself, from the anomalous conformation of that huge horseshoe quicksand, entangled in a cul-de-sac, and finding the country moreover arid and sterile, he crossed to Port Lincoln. He was thus the first to open a direct line of road to that harbour from the head of Spencer's Gulf, a distance of about 220 miles. ”

“ He reached Mount Serle, and found the dry bed of the great lake to the eastward, as described by Eyre, but discovered an error of thirty miles in its position, Eyre having placed it too far to the eastward. Further north than this, Frome did not proceed; on his way back lie made two excursions to the eastward, but found nothing but sterile and unpromising country. ”

“ In addition there were twelve men, eleven horses, one spring-cart, three bullock-drays, thirty bullocks, one horse-dray, two hundred sheep, four kangaroo dogs, and two sheep dogs.
Eyre accompanied the expedition as far as Lake Victoria, which they reached on the 10th of September, 1844. On the 11th of October they arrived at Laidley's Ponds. This was the place from which Sturt intended to leave the Darling for the interior, and where he expected to find, from the account given him by the natives, a fair-sized creek heading from a low range, visible at a distance to the north-west. ”

“ I arrived on the shores of Lake Torrens the third day after leaving the depot, and have ascertained that it is a basin of considerable magnitude, extending certainly over a space varying in width from 15 to 20 miles, and with a length of from 40 to 50, from its southern extremity, to the most northerly part of it, visible from a high summit in Flinders range, (about ninety miles north of Mount Arden) . The lake is girded with an outer ridge of sand, covered with salsolaceous plants, and with saline crusts, shewing above the ground at intervals. ”

“ Sturt, of the great extent and rich character of the land they contain, and though nearly all are more or less covered with reeds and are partially subject to inundation, I consider this portion of land to be as rich and valuable as any I have seen, and I have only felt surprise that so few have thought it worth their while to examine the land bordering on such a noble river. After leaving the lake, I found a good pass through the ranges about 15 miles to the southward of Adelaide, and returned to town on the morning of the 29th June. ”

“ June 30.--For the first ten miles to-day we had a very bad road, over steep stony ridges and valleys, covered for the most part with dense gum scrub. The surface was strewed over with rough pebbles or ironstone grit, and was broken a good deal into steep-faced ridges and deep hollows, as if formed so by the action of water. The formation of these precipitous banks appeared to be an ochre of various colours--red and yellow, and of a soft friable description. At ten miles we crossed a watercourse with many pools of brackish water in it, trending to a lake visible under the coast ridge. ”

“ June 17.--A little before daylight it commenced raining, and continued showery all day, and though we got wet several times, we experienced great comfort from the warm clothing we had obtained from Captain Rossiter. Upon ascending the hills, above our camp, which confined the waters of the little stream we were upon, we could trace its course south-west by south, to a small lake lying in the same direction, and which it appeared to empty into. A second small lake was observable to the north-west of the first. ”

“ The summer sun probably parches up the vegetation and unclothes the soil; but such is the effect of summer heat in all similar latitudes, and that spot should be considered the most valuable where the effect of solar heat can be best counteracted by natural or artificial means. I had hoped, as I have stated, that the Darling was receiving its accession of waters from the Williorara (Laidley's Ponds) ; but on arriving on its banks we were sadly disappointed to find, instead of a mountain stream, a creek only connects the river with Cowandillah Lake ”

“ Our latitudes appear to agree exactly. The second point upon which some difference appears to exist between Captain Frome's report and mine is the character of Lake Torrens itself, which Captain Frome thought might more properly be called a desert. This, it will be observed, is with reference to its south-east extremity—a point I never visited, and which I only saw once from Mount Serle ”

“ The rocky hills that surround this rude and strange valley are singularly wild. From Loch Maree, scarcely a mile distant from the sea-shore, the Ewe, a broad river, runs with a rapid course to the sea. Issuing from the lake, it first meanders gently through low grounds interspersed with wild groves of alder and birch and oak, enclosed by woody cliffs and irregular rough ground, which, on both hands, rise up the intricate skirts of the high mountains that bound the lake and the valley together. ”

“ Lake Erie is unchequered by islands, till we begin to approach its western regions; where, instead of an open sea, the beautiful and curving shores of the main land, and of the insular territories, covered as they generally are with unbroken forests, and opening channels and bays in every direction, lend a vision of enchantment, rarely equalled, to the eye of the passenger, borne along upon the bosom of the deep. ”

“ On the following morning the sun rose in his clearest splendor. As soon as that flood of luminous rays which constitutes day, was flowing on the crystalline sea, we departed from this romantic country scene in Canada.
Sailing along, we approached the terminus of our voyage on Lake Erie, which is considered the most dangerous of all the Great Lakes as to navigation, owing to its comparative shallowness—its mean depth, being about ninety feet—and the consequent liability to a heavy ground swell. ”

“ Few find motive enough, or feel sufficient ambition to endure the sea-sickness of the Lakes, that they may penetrate farther, merely for pleasure. It is true, that the rapid crowding of the West, by an emigrant population, settled all along the southern shore of Lake Erie, and through the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and the Territory of Michigan, together with the grand communication now opened between the city of New York and the great valley of the Mississippi over the bosom of Lake Erie, has made that lake a busy scene of commercial enterprise. ”