Part 5 (1/2)

26th September

Left the bivouac at 715 ae native well of good water in a slight hollow trending ard; having watered the horses and filled the kegs, continued our journey over sandy plains, covered with short coarse scrub; many hummocks of loose sand, covered partially with scrub, lay on each side of our track At noon passed the last sandy ridge; before us lay an immense plain, covered with thickets, and not a hill or valley could be observed--the country seemed to settle into one vast level of dense and almost impenetrable scrub or thicket At 1 ph the bush-fires, which had burnt so any grass, we steered west, but at 515 were coht in a dense thicket, without a single blade of grass or even scrub of any kind which could afford food for the horses; water it was hopeless to look for; and after a supper of raw bacon, damper, and a pint of water each, we retired to rest

WATERLESS COUNTRY AND DENSE SCRUB NORTH OF MURCHISON RIVER

27th September

At 70 a the thicket almost impassable, I ascended a cypress-tree, where a ht to the north, east, and west; not a break was visible--nothing but thicket in all directions, with scarcely an undulation of any kind; the view to the north-as most extensive--nearly twenty miles of thicket could be seen, with a surface as level as the sea Not considering it prudent to proceed onwards, the thicket being too dense to advance without the greatest difficulty, the saddle-bags being almost torn to pieces, and the horses quite worn out with continual exertions in dragging their packs through the thickets, ere co The country seen to the northwards was of too flat and sandy a character to give any hope of finding water or grass--and without these requisites, it would be incurring great risk of losing the horses, and of course defeating the object of the expedition; therefore, taking advantage of the partially cleared tracts of yesterday, we reached the watering place at 430 pm

28th Septe our pack-saddles, which it was found necessary to restuff, as they had been padded with coarse rushes; the saddle-bags had been torn to pieces, and the repairs of these required 's bivouac

29th Septeeneral course of 310 degrees, gradually ascending the sandy downs on the north side of the valley for three ain descended, and found the bottom occupied by a narrow samphire flat, 50 to 100 yards wide, over which the water runs during heavy rains, but it was now dry, and in some parts covered with a thin crust of salt; 1126 passed a native well of slightly brackish water, ast loose blocks of red sandstone; a sed to a s to the coal-formation: in one place the slate also cropped out

Abundance of brackish water lay in s the course of the streaed its direction nearly west; we followed it through a scrubby valley, with high hills on both sides, till 445, e bivouacked just below the junction of a sully from the northwards, with a very remarkable sandstone hill about three-quarters of a mile south; below this spot the valley trended to the south-west, and was bounded on the north-west by flat-tapped sandstone hills

30th Septe more than ten to fifteen netic Starting at 85, and having ascended the high land, passed through a thick line of wattles and dwarf gue, which for this part of the coast The country was covered with thick scrub, and soum and wattle thicket; about noon it was e, saw apparently a high range of hills extending north-north-west as far as Shark Bay, and terminated by a very abrupt and detached hill; but the excessive refraction caused by the heated and nearly level plain which intervened radually over a succession of sandy hills or ridges till 20 pm, when the lowest part of the plain was reached; we found it occupied by a small patch of spear-wood; the soil was hard dry clay, but on proceeding a little farther we found a patch of e of sand; at one foot deep we found water, but in such small quantity that we could only obtain sufficient for ourselves, and should have had to wait at least two hours to have given each horse only one gallon Proceeding onwards, in hope of finding a more plentiful supply, we found the country became drier and full of circular hollows, filled with fine clurass; in one of these we bivouacked at 50, and dug six feet for water in red sand, but without any appearance of obtaining it even at double that depth

REPULSED FOR WANT OF WATER

1st October

Thisnorth-west, in hope of finding water, at 840 came on dense thickets of wattle, which extended at least seven or eight miles farther north; we therefore turned west to avoid thenetic, and with great difficulty forced our way for two round; 1240 pe of hills seen yesterday; found them to consist of limestone and sand, covered with thick scrub; between the hills were many nearly circular hollows filled with thickets of wattles; although the bottoms of the holloere at least fifty feet below the lowest part of the ridges around them, they were quite dry, and afforded no hope of water even by digging; the country northward appeared even less likely to afford a supply, so much required, as it seemed to consist wholly of limestone and loose sand, without swamps or watercourses; the nearest spot at which we could hope to find it in this direction was the south part of Freycinet Harbour, distant, according to the charts, about thirty reat doubt existed of the accuracy of it in this position (error having been found in some other parts of the coast-line); nor was it certain that we could find water on the coast, in which case the loss of our horses would be al extreue

The circumstances of the case required a prompt decision; I therefore ordered an immediate return towards the last spot where we had seen water The whole party felt convinced of the necessity of returning, though with the greatest reluctance to do so, as it see the Gascoyne River We followed our route back, and halted at 530 in a wattle thicket

A HORSE FINDS WATER

2nd October

Left our unco the horses scarcely able to travel froest and rode over to the spot where we had obtained a little on the 30th Septe wells and have a supply ready, if it could be obtained in sufficient quantity; at 110 arrived, and found the wells we had dug nearly dry; by opening several trenches down to the rocks which lay about one and a half feet below the surface, the water oozed in, and when the party caallon for each horse; taking off the packs, we co: four horses had received their small allowance, when it ca his share he marched off at a smart pace, which somewhat surprised us, as he started in the direction of e had supposed to be nothing but a tea-tree scrub; on following hi at a small shallow pool of water in a hollow in the clay This was a very fortunate discovery, as the trenches filled ater so slowly that a full supply could not have been obtained that night, and the horses had been sixty-five hours without water

SAND PLAINS AND SCRUB RETURN TO THE MURCHISON RIVER

3rd October

This es and myself started at 730 am in a north-easterly course, to ascertain the practicability of proceeding in that direction, taking two of the strongest horses After riding four hours over an open, scrubby sand-plain, with circular valleys, we again fell in with thickets of wattles so dense that, although burnt by the native fires about four years previous, they would have been impassable for the pack-horses; but, favoured by this circumstance, we penetrated the thicket in a north-north-west direction for about twelve e we had an extensive view, but of anature; the whole country was one vast plain, covered with dense thickets and scrub as far as the eye could reach, except to the west-north-west, where rose a high and barren ridge, which would not have been visible but for excessive refraction, as it must have been more than twenty-five miles distant The plain was still dotted over with the remarkable circular hollows or valleys which, by their extrereat depth of sandy soil, incapable of retaining water on the surface even for a short ti We turned in disappoint ourselves froained the sand-plain, we continued our return for several hours, steering by the stars, hoping by a nighteffects of the sun, which at this season renders travelling over an extensive sandy plain very fatiguing Having been ht

4th October

Started with the dawn, and pushi+ng our tired and hungry horses over the plain as fast as circumstances would admit, arrived at the enca our absence two more waterholes had been excavated, and sufficient water obtained for the horses; but, froer than three or four days: the hardness of the sandstone precluded our sinking the wells more than one and a half feet The extreme aridity of the country--the absence of water in consequence of the sandy nature of the soil, which renders it impossible that watercourses should exist--the dense and almost impassable nature of the thickets of acacia and rowth, and the heat of the cli to explore this part of the colony, excepting during the wettest of the wintercircumstances, I considered it my duty not to lead the party into a position from which it would most probably be i some of our horses; and even difficulties of a ht arise, which would prevent the more complete examination of the imperfectly known country to the southward of our present position, more especially as a successful advance to the northward seemed impossible

5th October

Left the encanetic over sandy country, covered with coarse scrub; at noon passed a narrow strip of wooded grassy land, the soil being liain beca an open valley, ca south; followed it south-south-west At 215 passed our bivouac of the 29th Septe the streaht bank of the Murchison River, running through wide grassy flats, the streath; but, with the exception of the flats on each side of the bank, the country is poor and scrubby, destitute of trees, and the hills high and rocky, consisting of red sandstone, those to the west capped with liued and nearly starved, having subsisted chiefly on scrub for the last two days, we determined to rest them for a few days, while we examined the river towards itsthe stream doards to the south-west, reached the sea after a ride of six hours Excepting the flats and a narrow strip of land on each side, the country was very indifferent, the hills being composed of sandstone and sand, covered with coarse scrub and a gigantic species of grass, the leaves of which, instead of affording food for stock, were a source of great annoyance to our horses, being armed with sharp thorny points, and was sorass by the party The tide flows about five ht rapids; although it seeable for s reaches of water about 100 yards wide, and wide flats covered with reeds, the roots of which seem to fors were seen on the left bank, but few on the right, the water of which was of excellent quality Afterobservations of the bar, which appeared to be practicable for whaleboats in moderate weather if the wind be south of west, we returned along the south shore of the estuary, which is about one and a halfand half a reat depth My horse being quite knocked up, it was dark before we could reach a spot where we could obtain water and grass; having coing rock, as it proht