Discoveries in Australia Volume II Part 28

To this part of the Albert that had given rise to such expectations we gave the name of Hope Reach. A little higher up we landed on the right bank to cook a meal and examine the country. I shall here attempt, with the aid of Lieutenant Gore's sketch,* to give the reader some idea of the beauty of the scene that now presented itself to our anxious gaze.

(*Footnote. See the view annexed.)

It was in truth as glorious a prospect as could greet the eye. A magnificent sheet of water lay before us in one unbroken expanse, resembling a smooth translucent lake. Its gentle repose harmonized exquisitely with the slender motionless boughs of the drooping gums, palms, and acacias, that cl.u.s.tered on the banks, and dipped their feathery foliage in the limpid stream, that like a polished mirror bore, within its bosom, the image of the graceful vegetation by which it was bordered. The report of our guns, as they dealt destruction among the quails that here abounded, rolled for the first time along the waters of the Albert, breaking in on the hush of stillness that appeared to reign over all like the presence of a spirit. The country that stretched away from either bank was an extensive plain, covered with long coa.r.s.e gra.s.s, above which was occasionally seen the head of a kangaroo, listening, with its acute ear, for our approach.

No high land presented itself in any direction, and the eye was only relieved by the growth of trees and shrubs that marked the line of the watercourses, the natural drains of the country, which had formed deep channels through the banks. The gumtrees, near the river, were of considerable size, though small on the plains. A light kind of mould of great depth, without a particle of stone of any kind, was the character of the soil.

BIRDS AND FISHES.

One of the boats tried the hooks and lines during our rambles over the country, and from the number of catfish and a dark kind of bream that was caught, we are enabled to state that this part of the Albert abounds with them. Besides quails, pigeons and a beautiful finch, before seen on the Victoria, are to be numbered among the land birds. Those of the water consisted of large brown, and small grey ducks, spoonbills, black and white geese, and a dark blue kind of rail, bearing a great resemblance to the English moor-fowl, that afforded us excellent sport, as they flew out in great numbers from the long flags that border the banks on the upper part of Hope Reach. We did not see any black swans, neither were they noticed by us on the north-west coast. I, myself, believe they are not to be found to the northward of lat.i.tude 27 degrees 0 minutes South. This part of the river is subject to a tidal influence, producing a slight rise, which takes place about four hours after the time of high-water at the mouth.

In our eagerness to proceed we moved off rapidly up the river, after a hasty meal. All beyond was mystery; and it seemed that we were destined to remain long in suspense; for the day soon closed in, leaving only the pale light of the moon to guide us. The depth continued regular, at two and a half fathoms, and the width two hundred yards. We hastened onwards; the night scenery being almost more beautiful than the day. The heavens seemed more deep, the water more glittering, the trees more graceful and feathery; and here and there a tall palm reared its thin and spectral form above the dense foliage through which the moonlight broke at intervals, and fell, as it were, in showers of silver on the placid waters.

Nearly seven miles had been traversed in the same South-West 1/2 South direction, when our hopes of proceeding further were suddenly for a time destroyed, by the appearance of a dense woody ma.s.s ahead. A little further on, the moon peering through the matted foliage showed one branch of the river turning off to the southward, whilst another, in the mouth of which we found ourselves, trended west. The lead giving the great depth of six fathoms, we were induced to follow the latter. Utter darkness soon surrounded us; the trees, on either side, over-shadowing the river, which in this branch was not eighty yards wide.

PROGRESS IMPEDED.

Our progress, also, at length began to be impeded by fallen or sunken trees, which not only rendered the ascent dangerous, but at the end of about two miles fairly brought us to a standstill, and forbade our further advance. This detention was a bitter disappointment to us all, and we crept into our blanket-bags with disgust, but with the hope that in the morning a pa.s.sage might still be found.

August 4.

Daylight brought no better hopes of our taking the boats higher up by this branch, as a succession of large trees lay across it a quarter of a mile above. It was a gloomy corner we had got into, and so sheltered that it seemed as though a breath of wind had never swept through it; the leaves of the low-spreading palms that drooped over the water, damp with the morning dew, had unbroken edges, as if an eternal quietude had pervaded the spot.

BEAUTY OF THE LANDSCAPE.

This triste appearance wore off as the sun rose, and the scenery under his smiles was soon clothed with beauty. Trees with every variety of foliage overhung each other, connected, as it were, by bowers of creepers depending in festoons and concealing odd-shaped fragments of fallen timber, which here and there reared their blackened heads out of the water, the unruffled smoothness of which was occasionally disturbed by the splash of some wildfowl, and chequered with alternate spots of gold and gloom by the sun's rays, as they pierced through the dense surrounding foliage.

Returning, we entered the south branch; the opening of which was almost equal in beauty, as the reader will perceive from the view in the beginning of the first volume; but we were again stopped by fallen trees after proceeding about a mile and a half.

Here we observed driftwood and rushes in the trees, fifteen feet above our heads. It was now quite clear that all hopes of water carriage towards the interior were at an end. The boats were at this time above fifty miles from the entrance, and our provisions only admitting of the remainder of this day being spent in land exploration, a party was immediately selected for this service.

LAND EXCURSION.

Following up a short woody valley, on reaching the summit of the level a view burst upon me, the nature of which the reader may learn from the accompanying plate. A vast boundless plain lay before us, here and there dotted over with woodland isles. Whilst taking the bearings of one of these to guide us in the direction we were to steer, I sent a man up a tree to have a further view; but nothing beyond an extension of the plain was to be seen. The river could be traced to the southward by a waving line of green trees; the latter were larger at this spot than in any other part, and consisted of tall palms, and three kinds of gums. No trace of the western branch could be discovered.

Time being, as I have before said, very precious, we moved off in a South-South-East direction, at the rate of almost four miles an hour, in spite of the long coa.r.s.e gra.s.s lying on the ground and entangling our legs.

THE PLAINS OF PROMISE.

The soil* was still a light-coloured mould of great depth, and according to one so well qualified to judge as Sir W. Hooker, who kindly examined some that I brought to England, is of a rich quality, confirming the opinion I entertained of it, which suggested for this part of the continent, the name of The Plains of Promise.

(*Footnote. My immediate visit to Port Essington afforded me an opportunity of comparing the qualities of the two soils; and the result was that the richest land I saw there, in spite of the aid of manure, etc. was very inferior to that on the Plains of Promise.)

We were now once more stepping out over a terra incognita; and though no alpine features greeted our eyes as they wandered eagerly over the vast level, all was clothed with the charm of novelty. The feelings of delight which are naturally aroused in those whose feet for the first time press a new and rich country, and which I have so often before endeavoured in vain to express, burst forth on this occasion with renewed intensity.

At the end of nearly four miles we turned off to the westward for a rise at a short distance, concealing the line of trees that marked the course of the river, from which we had been gradually receding. We found it to be on the opposite side of a watercourse twenty-five feet deep. From its summit we got a view of the country to the south-west, over the growth of trees at the margin of the river.*

(*Footnote. See the view annexed. )

On this rise we met an emu, which, after several bad shots, got away from the whole of us. This, in some measure was owing to our over-eagerness, as the bird was at first inclined to approach. Proceeding a little farther we observed a small lake bearing north half a mile. Attracted by the beauty of the vernal tints on its borders we went to taste the waters. On the same refreshing errand was a luckless beautiful slate-coloured egret, which Mr. Gore shot. Holding our west course we made the river at the end of another mile. Its size was reduced to a mere rivulet; being scarcely fifteen yards wide, with a depth of five feet.

Yet it had greater velocity than we had before observed, running at the rate of a mile an hour, a clear babbling brook, over which, acacias and drooping gums formed a leafy tunnel; its course was still from the south.

HALT THE PARTY AND PROCEED ALONE.

Whilst the rest of the party halted I proceeded, with the freshest man,*

in a southerly direction; urged on by what was, perhaps, now the unjustifiable hope of discovering some distant point rising above the far horizon as a definite result and reward of my exploration. It seemed, however, almost impossible that this same wearisome monotony could long continue; and I experienced much of that painful depressing excitement which is created by a series of similar impressions when we are longing for variety.

(*Footnote. A marine, of the name of John Brown, possessing great powers of endurance. He died in 1845, in a situation I got him under the Trinity House, on his obtaining a pension for long servitude.)

We soon gained almost another two miles, when I availed myself of the opportunity to satisfy a second time my ambition of outstripping my companions in approaching towards that land of mystery, Central Australia. Desiring Brown to make the river abreast, I ran a short distance further, when I again met the Albert, flowing on as before, with undiminished size. Even this short distance was something to gain in a new and untrodden country.

The line of verdure still pointed out the southerly course of the river across the endless plain; and it became natural to speculate on its source or origin; whether it was the drainage of a swamp, or the outlet of some lagoon, fed by the Cordillera to the eastward. But to speculation alone was I reduced, it not being permitted me to clear up this point.

All I could do was to give one long lingering look to the southward before I returned. In that direction, however, no curling smoke denoted the presence of the savage; all was lonely and still; and yet even in these deserted plains, equally wanting in the redundance of animal, as in the luxuriance of vegetable life, I could discover the rudiments of future prosperity, and ample justification of the name which I had bestowed upon them. I gazed around, despite my personal disappointment, with feelings of hopeful grat.i.tude to Him who had spread out so fair a dwelling place for his creatures; and could not refrain from breathing a prayer that ere long the now level horizon would be broken by a succession of tapering spires rising from the many christian hamlets that must ultimately stud this country, and pointing through the calm depths of the intensely blue and gloriously bright skies of Tropical Australia, to a still calmer and brighter and more glorious region beyond, to which all our sublimest aspirations tend, and where all our holiest desires may be satisfied.

The recent formation of this part of the country was very striking. We met no rocks during our walk; a porphyritic pebble or two being the only stones noticed; they were flattened, evidently showing that the water by which they were carried had a slow motion, which supports the view I have put forward in an early page of this volume, with reference to the gradual northerly discharge of the acc.u.mulated waters of Central Australia.

EXPLORATION OF THE INTERIOR.

My position was in lat.i.tude 17 degrees 58 1/2 minutes South longitude 7 degrees 12 1/2 East of Port Essington, or 139 degrees 25 minutes East of Greenwich; and within four hundred miles from the centre of the continent. What an admirable point of departure for exploring the interior! A few camels, with skins for conveying water, would be the means of effecting this great end in a very short time. In one month these ships of the desert, as they have been appropriately called, might accomplish, at a trifling expense, that which has been attempted in vain by the outlay of so much money. When we consider that Australia is our own continent, and that now, after sixty years of occupation, we are in total ignorance of the interior, though thousands are annually spent in geographical research, it seems not unreasonable to expect that so important a question should at length be set at rest.

RETURN DOWN THE ALBERT.

In the whole continent there exists no point of departure to be compared with the head of the Albert. The expedition should, as I have before remarked, go to Investigator Road, fulfilling my prediction of the ultimate importance of that port, which lies only twenty-seven miles North-North-West from the entrance. Here the flat-bottomed boats, taken out in frame, for the purpose of carrying up the camels, should be put together, and towed from thence to the river.

A shout from Brown, who, alarmed at my lengthened absence, had come in search of me, roused me from the reverie in which I was indulging, and which had carried me rolling along on the back of a camel, girded round with an anti-pleurisy belt, over many miles of the new lands of Australia. Returning with him I rejoined the rest of the party, and we all moved back in the silence that usually succeeds great excitement, towards the boats. Mr. Forsyth having made the necessary observations for lat.i.tude, we were soon following the downward course of the Albert.

KANGAROO POINT.

We reached the mouth before daylight on the 6th. This was the coldest morning we had experienced; the thermometer being at 51 degrees with a strong breeze from South-South-East, which rendered somewhat dangerous the task of collecting the requisite soundings on the bar at the mouth; the gig being once or twice nearly half filled in doing so. Behind the eastern entrance point, was seen a large light-coloured kangaroo, which, for want of a better, afforded us a name. Our observations refer to this spot, Kangaroo Point, which they place in lat.i.tude 17 degrees 35 minutes 10 seconds South and longitude 7 degrees 35 minutes 50 seconds East of Port Essington. Instead of the usual mangrove sh.o.r.e, the coast to the eastward was sandy; but the most remarkable feature, hereabouts, is a clump of tall mangroves, towering over their fellow evergreens, close to the western entrance point. They are called in the chart the High Trees of Flinders, having been noticed by that celebrated navigator whilst pa.s.sing at a distance from the coast. Bearing South-West 1/2 South they guide a ship to the bar, which can only be taken at high-water springs, when the depth averages eleven feet.* When the eastern part of this clump of trees bears South 45 degrees West, and Kangaroo Point South 10 degrees West the bar will have been pa.s.sed, and the depth, at the same time of tide, will be seventeen feet; when the bearing of Kangaroo Point, given, leads up the channel, which deepens in a quarter of a mile to twenty-three and soon after to thirty feet. The impetus given to the water, from the first reach of the Albert, being straight, forces a channel of two miles in extent; with a width of nearly a quarter of a mile, growing gradually shallower towards the outer part, and, ultimately, becoming lost in the great flat fronting the sh.o.r.e, which is thrown out in proportion to the length of the channel, beyond which the bar extends for above a mile. Part of its inner side, however, is intersected by a narrow channel of thirteen and seventeen feet; the guide through which, is the eastern edge of the clump of trees before mentioned, bearing South 45 degrees West. The Albert is navigable, for vessels of a draught suited to the bar, thirteen miles; and within five of where the water is fresh.

(*Footnote. The tides in the head of the Gulf of Carpentaria appear to be a compound of many others, obliterating the common daily difference, and producing only one tide in 24 hours. The direction of the flood stream commences at South-South-East, changing gradually to South-South-West as it terminates; that of the ebb changes from North-West to North-North-East. The strength of each is from a quarter to one knot. The rise at springs is from 9 to 12 feet, and at neaps from 3 to 8 feet.)

After observing the lat.i.tude, we took advantage of the afternoon's lull to make the best of our way to the ship, which we met underweigh, running down towards us; Mr. Parker, the master, having become anxious at our lengthened absence.

In the evening and next morning, we got more soundings off the mouth of the river; and found that there was only six feet at low-water springs, a mile and a quarter outside the bar. We afterwards carried a line along the south-eastern sh.o.r.e of the gulf; and at noon, on the 9th, anch.o.r.ed off Van Diemen's Inlet, where I had arranged to meet Mr. Fitzmaurice's party.

ACCIDENT TO MR. FITZMAURICE.

The whaleboat was soon seen hastening from the sh.o.r.e without the yawl, which made us suspect all was not right; and I was much distressed to hear that Mr. Fitzmaurice had been seriously wounded in the ankle by the discharge of a gun which had gone off within a few yards of it. Mr. Bynoe went on sh.o.r.e immediately to a.s.sist in bringing him on board. The accident having happened several days ago, and the whole charge of shot being buried in his foot, his sufferings were intense. It was thought for some time that amputation would be necessary; but though this was not the case, he was maimed for life; for which, in some measure, he has been compensated by promotion and a pension. By this melancholy accident the service sustained a great loss, which was at no time felt more than when it occurred.

COMPLETION OF THE SURVEY OF SOUTH Sh.o.r.e OF THE GULF.

Mr. Fitzmaurice had fortunately, before he was disabled, completed his examination of the coast between the Flinders and Van Diemen's Inlet, with his usual praiseworthy activity. On leaving the former he found that the sh.o.r.e trended North 47 degrees East, with a large inlet at the end of ten miles. This was only examined a short distance in a south direction; but from the bank being thrown out six miles from its mouth, with a channel nearly halfway through, it evidently disembogues a large volume of water, and we may reasonably infer it to be a river. It is named in the chart Bynoe's Inlet. Seven miles beyond was another inlet, with a sandy beach extending for two miles to the south-west of it. Five miles further, the trend of the coast changed to North 4 degrees East, continuing almost straight in that direction to Van Diemen's Inlet, distant twenty-five miles; and, with the exception of the first five, is sandy throughout. Thirteen miles from Van Diemen's Inlet is an opening of some magnitude, near the south entrance point of which are ponds of fresh water. Two and four miles south of it were small openings; and two and seven miles north of it, two others.

During his excursion Mr. Fitzmaurice had killed one of the rare species of kangaroo, seen for the first time by us at King Sound, called Macropus unguifer; this was a somewhat important discovery, as it showed the extent to which the animal is diffused over the continent. I may here mention, that the night before we reached Van Diemen's Inlet a flight of rose-coloured c.o.c.katoos,* several of which were caught and kept alive for some time, alighted on the rigging.

(*Footnote. Cacatua eos.)

Thus terminated our exploration of the southern sh.o.r.es of the Gulf of Carpentaria, nearly two hundred miles of which had been minutely examined in the boats.* Twenty-six inlets had been discovered, of which two proved to be rivers, whilst three more were nearly as promising. That all the others may contain fresh water in the rainy season there is every reason for supposing, from the fact of deep channels being found in their banks; from what I have already observed regarding the water being less salt towards the heads at low tides; and from the report we afterwards heard at Port Essington that Malay proas occasionally visit the southern sh.o.r.es of the Gulf, and fill fresh water from alongside, some distance off the land. If we receive this statement as correct, we must suppose that at certain seasons the discharge from the various inlets and rivers we discovered is sufficiently powerful to force back the great body of seawater, as is the case at the embouchures of many large rivers.