Part 47

Preparing equipment for the party proceeding to explore the Victoria River, towards the upper part of its course; the grass has become quite green and fresh water is also abundant, which has caused some of the horses to stray beyond the usual feeding ground on the Whirlwind Plains.

24th November.

Mr. H. Gregory and Mr. Flood brought in the stray horses, having found them beyond Sandy Island. The timber party returned to the camp with four logs of timber, which are intended to strengthen the keelson. While at work at the creek where the timber was procured the party had been twice visited by the blacks; these intrusions were neither decidedly friendly or hostile, but they stole some small articles which had been imprudently left lying near one of the logs of timber while the party was employed elsewhere; about 10.0 a.m. the blacks set fire to the grass about 200 yards from the camp, and then retired. At 2.0 p.m., left the camp, accompanied by Messrs. H. Gregory, Wilson, and Mueller, with seven horses and twenty days' provisions, the object being to examine the country through which the exploring party will have to travel on the route to the interior; at 6 a.m. bivouacked at Timber Creek; in the principal channel of the creek there were many small pools of water, and the grass was fresh and green on the flats. Except on the banks of the river and creeks, the country is very poor and stony; the geological structure of the country is the same as at Sea Range--the same bands of sandstone cliff resting on soft shales, the strata being horizontal; but beneath the shales chert and coarse siliceous limestone were exposed, and fragments of jasper are frequent. The principal timber is white-gum of small size, and the cotton-tree (cochlospermum), which sometimes attains the thickness of nine to twelve inches. Though grass is abundant on every description of soil, yet the greater part is of inferior descriptions and dries up completely at this season.

Latitude by altitude of Achernar, 15 degrees 39 minutes 43 seconds.

25th November.

Started at 5.45 a.m., and followed the creek to the south-south-east; it rapidly decreased in size, branching into small gullies, so that we had some difficulty in finding water for a midday halt. The flats on the bank of the creek are in some parts nearly a mile wide, well grassed and openly timbered; the hills are of sandstone, but chert and coarse limestone were frequently seen on the lower ridges. At noon halted at a small pool of rainwater. The day was cloudy and cool, the thermometer only 90 degrees at 2 p.m. At 3.0 resumed our route up the creek, which soon terminated in small gullies rising in stony ridges; as there was no appearance of water to the south, the course was changed to south-east and east, in which direction we followed down a gully, and at 7.20 halted at a small waterhole.

26th November.

Starting at 6.15 a.m., steered first north 70 degrees east and then 60 degrees till 3 p.m., traversing a level grassy box-flat extending along the northern side of a rocky sandstone range. At 3.0 p.m. reached the south-west end of the Fitzroy Range, which is a narrow ridge of sandstone hills ten miles long and one to two miles broad; at the north end of the range we found a small pool of rainwater, and, having watered the horses, pushed on towards the Victoria River, at the base of Bynoe Range; but although the country was level, we were so much retarded by the soft nature of the soil that the river was not reached till sunset, and the banks of the river were so steep that the water was not accessible for the horses, and we therefore encamped at a small hole of muddy rainwater. Our camp was about four miles above the furthest point attained by Captain Stokes, and consequently in Beagle Valley which we had traversed for more than thirty miles, the greater part of which was well grassed and openly wooded with box, bauhinia, and acacia. The Fitzroy Range is almost isolated, and there is a level plain five or six miles wide to the south-east, beyond which there is a high sandstone range surmounted by an almost unbroken cliff of sandstone near the summit, and which appeared to be quite impassable.

27th November.

Steering east-south-east through grassy flats for one hour and a half, found that the river had turned to the northward round a steep hill, but continuing our course, crossed a low stony ridge and again approached the river, the banks of which were so steep that the horses could not get to the water, and therefore followed it two miles and encamped on a stony bar where the water was easy of access. The valley of the river is much contracted by the steep sandstone hills, which come close on both banks. In the bed of the river several fragments of jasper and black shale were found, the latter appearing to belong to the coal formation. A slight shower in the afternoon cooled the air, and the temperature was only 92 degrees at sunset, and the wet bulb 79 degrees.

Latitude by Achernar 15 degrees 36 minutes 29 seconds.

DEEP GORGE IN TABLELAND.

28th November.

Started at 6.15 a.m. and followed the river, which first came from the east, then south-east and south-west till 10.40, when we crossed to the right bank and halted. The valley of the river is much narrower, and does not exceed half a mile, and is bounded by cliffs of sandstone varying from 50 to 300 feet high. The waters of the river occasionally rise 100 feet, as the marks of the floods extended to the base of the cliffs; the regular channel of the river is about 200 feet wide, the water forming deep reaches often more than a mile long and separated by dry stony bars of shingle and rock. The sandstone is thicker here than towards Steep Head, but there is no change in the geological character, except that the chert-beds are not exposed. The tracks of several natives were observed, but they were not seen by us; at 2.0 p.m. resumed the journey up the river in a generally south direction, and at 4.30 encamped, but had great difficulty in forcing our way through the reeds to procure water.

Latitude by meridian altitude of a Persei 15 degrees 41 minutes 54 seconds.

29th November.

Left the camp at 6 a.m. and continued the route up the river to the south till 10.10, when we halted till 2.15 p.m., and then proceeded on till 4.45, and encamped at a small pool of rainwater, the bank of the river being so steep and covered with high reeds that the water is scarcely accessible. The valley of the river is still bounded by sandstone cliffs; but as the strata are horizontal, and the bed of the river rises, the shales are not much exposed, and the alluvial banks reach to the base of the cliffs, which are so continuous that I have not yet seen a spot where we could have ascended the tableland in which the valley is excavated. Several tributary gullies having passed, but none worthy of special notice. Fragments of trap-rock are frequent in the bed of the river, and one specimen contained traces of carbonate of copper; at 6.0 thermometer 92 degrees, aneroid 29.80, at the camp--sixty feet above the river.

Latitude by meridian altitude of Achernar 15 degrees 50 minutes 30 seconds.

VALLEY SUDDENLY WIDENS.

30th November.

Resumed our route up the river at 5.40 a.m., the general course south; there being no change in the character of the country till 10.0, when the hills receded and the cliffs ceased; at 10.30 halted at a small pool in a back channel of the river. At noon the thermometer stood at 100 degrees in the shade, and the aneroid 29.75--forty feet above the river. Starting again at 2.0 p.m., soon entered an extensive plain extending to the east, south, and west; followed a large creek to the south-west till 6.15, and encamped.

Latitude by meridian altitude of Achernar 16 degrees 2 minutes 30 seconds.

1st December.

At 5.40 a.m. crossed the creek and steered east to the foot of a rocky hill, but not seeing the principal branch of the Victoria, returned to the creek and then steered south-south-west till 10.0 a.m., when we crossed two small creeks, in the second of which we found a pool of water surrounded by reeds (typha), and halted during the heat of the day. The country traversed was first a stony ridge, on which several small stone huts had been erected, but scarcely of sufficient size for a man to enter, and the roofs were only formed by a few pieces of wood and a little grass; they consist of a wall three feet high, in the form of a horseshoe, about three feet in diameter inside; the entrances of some had been closed with stones and afterwards partially opened, and I can only conjecture that, as the practice of carrying the bones of their deceased relatives prevails in this part of Australia, it is probable that these erections are used as temporary sepulchres. After crossing this stony ridge entered a level plain of clay, much fissured by the sun, and in some parts covered with fragments of jasper and sandstones; as the creek was approached limestone prevailed, but the exposed portion seemed to be formed by a rearrangement of the broken fragments of older rocks, which were visible in the gullies. The water at which we halted appeared to be supplied by a spring, and not to be the retention of rainwater. At 3.15 p.m. proceeded in a westerly direction in search of the principal branch of the creek, which we reached at 4.0 p.m., but found it much reduced in size, not exceeding fifteen yards in width; followed it up for an hour, and camped at a small but deep pool of water, which is evidently supplied by a spring in the limestone rocks, which form the banks of the creek.

Latitude by meridian altitude of Achernar 16 degrees 10 minutes.

JASPER RANGE.

2nd December.

Having filled our water-bags, we left the camp at 6.40 a.m., and steered a course of north 200 degrees east towards a range of hills composed of jasper rock, the highest point of which we reached at 10.0. The aneroid stood at 29.15; thermometer 94 degrees. Three miles to the south-west of this range the country rose into an elevated tableland higher than the Jasper Range; towards this we continued our route, following a small watercourse which gradually turned to the east. Finding the country very dry and rocky, and no prospect of finding a spot where the tableland could be ascended, we returned to the waterhole at which we camped last night.