Part 25 (1/2)
”With this intention I left the caust, and at twelvea fine reach, belohich the river takes a turn to the west-south-west, receiving the waters of rather a large creek frorees 3 rees 7 ain inclined to the southward, ie on its left, by the influence of which it is turned in one atered channel to the west and west by north, for nearly thirty miles; in that course the reaches are nearly connected, varying in breadth from 80 to 120 yards; firm plains of a poor white soil extend on either side of the river; they were rather bare of pasture, but they are evidently in sorees 9 rees 16 minutes, a considerable river joins the Victoria from the north-east, which I would submit may be named the ”Thomson,” in honour of E Deas Thomson, Esquire, the Honourable the Colonial Secretary It was on one of the five reaches in the westerly course of the Victoria that I passed the second night; the river there reat depth; the rocks and siving it the se and e, however, both in its appearance and course, caused me to return i my party down such a river whithersoever it should flow
”On the 25th August, we resumed our journey down that portion of the Victoria above described, and made the river mentioned fro it doe found an unbroken sheet of water in its channel, averaging fifty yards in breadth; we forded it at the junction, and continued toall the channels, into which it had again divided, on my left At about one mile the river there turns to the south-south-west and south, spreading over a depressed and barren waste, void of trees or vegetation of any kind, its level surface being only broken by s islands upon the dry bed of an inland sea, which, I am convinced, at no distant period did exist there
”On the 1st Septeh narrow, reach in the e, streith boulders, and covered with an acacia scrub, closes upon the river
This position is irass will, I think, in most seasons, be found on the bank of the river, when not a blade, perhaps, may be seen within many miles above or below: rees 24 rees 51 e recedes, and the soil becoled with difficulty over this ground to rees 43 hten so buried 400 lbs flour, and 70 lbs sugar, still retaining a sufficient supply to carry us to Captain Sturt's farthest, on Cooper's Creek, to the eastward, (to which point I was convinced this river would lead me) and from thence back to the settled districts of New South Wales; which was all I could then hope to acco worse, so that our horses were continually falling into the fissures up to their hocks, I was coar at rees 51 minutes, at another snificant channel; here a barren sandstone range again impedes the river in its southerly course, and throws it off to the ard, thus causing many of its channels to unite and forrees 54 minutes; this, the lowest reach we attained, I did not discover untilfound a sufficient supply in a channel rees 55 rees 23 e which obstructs it, resu in countless channels over a surface bearing flood marks six and ten feet above its present level; this vast expanse is only bounded to the eastward by the barren range alluded to, which, ending abruptly, runs parallel with the river at a distance varying from four to seven miles On the 7th Septerees 0aas we could find water, transient as it was, I continued to push on with the hope of reaching, sooner or later, soht refresh the horses; however, that hope was destroyed at the close of the next day, for although I had co to the southward, with nuth to encaitude, by account, 142 degrees 20 minutes, on the bank of a deep channel, without either water or food for our wearied horses The followingone man and Harry withwatercourses and lagoons, but upon riding down even the deepest of thenificant channels, which again subdivided, and in a short distance dissipated the waters, derived froe river, on the absorbing plain; returning in disappointhtest man and Harry on other horses to look into the channels still unexamined, but they also returned unsuccessful We had seen late fires of the natives at which they had passed the night without water, and tracked theoon in search of it; we also found that they had enca each as it had beco previously made holes to drain off the last , and all we could give them was the rotten straw and weeds which had covered so, then, that it would be the certain loss of many, and consequently an unjustifiable risk of my party to atteines themselves were at a loss to find water, I felt itto reh unsuccessful in my attempt to follow it that far, fro-continued direction of the river's course, I think there can exist but little doubt that the ”Victoria” is identical with Cooper's Creek, of Captain Sturt; that creek was abandoned by its discoverer in latitude 27 degrees 46from the north-east, and as the natives infore one;” the lowest carees 13 rees 20due south, and the lowest point of the range which bounds that flat country to the eastward, bearing south 25 degrees east; Captain Sturt also states that the ground near the creek was so blistered and light that it was unfit to ride on; but that before he turned, he had satisfied hin of water to the eastward
”Havingthe track at two phtan old invalid, and unable to travel further, he must have starved if left alive At thirteen miles we reached the water So day we made our next camp; but it ith much difficulty that ht to water, one being almost carried by threethe reach, in latitude 25 degrees 54 rass in the channel about the water, I gave the horses two days' rest My carees 55 rees 24 rees east; water boiled at 214 degrees, the terees On the 14th September we proceeded on our journey, and reached the fir halted a day, we again moved on, and arrived within fivemy party on the south channel, I rode to the spot, and found theround that very one to collect others to assist hihtout during the night, and at sunrise proceeded to our position of the 4th August on the south channel”
From the above account, which is equally clear and distinct, it would appear, that, just belohere the river Alice joins the Victoria, the latter river had already commenced its south-west course, and that the last thirty miles dohich the Surveyor-General traced this river was a part of the general south-west course, which it afterwards maintained to the termination of Mr Kennedy's route, and consequently the latter traveller never had an opportunity of approaching so near the Gulf of Carpentaria as the Surveyor-General had done Here its channel separates into three principal branches, at half-a-iven down to the point, at which he had now arrived, (latitude 24 degrees 52then travelled nearly 100 reat difficulty in finding water In consequence indeed, of the unfavourable changes that had taken place in the river, he deter down it with two men to the 26th parallel, whence, if he found that it still held to the south, he proposed returning with the intention of trying to find a practicable route to the Gulf of Carpentaria, in compliance with his instructions, and under an impression, I presume, that the fate of the Victoria would then have been fully deterrees 3 ed its course to the W S W was joined by a large creek frorees 7 es on its left, and trended for thirty miles to the west, and even to the northward of that point, having al in breadth, fro bounded on either side by firrees 16 e tributary streaave the naes which had now taken place, he returned for his party with the deter so fine a river to the last
We shall now see how far his anticipations were confiration of the Victoria river, and his account of the country through which it flows, accords with the description I have given of the dreary region into which I penetrated
On the 26th of Septeht down his party, resu the Victoria, struck the N E
tributary about threeat that point, kept on the proper right bank of the Victoria
”At about a mile,” says Mr Kennedy, ”it (the Victoria) there turns to the SSW and south, spreading over a depressed and barren waste, void of trees or vegetation of any kind, its level surface being only broken by small doones of red sand, like islands upon the dry bed of an inland sea, which I am convinced at no distant period did exist there”
There cannot, I think, be any reasonable doubt, but that Mr Kennedy had here reached the edge of the great central desert
Both the river he was tracing, and the country were precisely similar in character to Cooper's Creek, and the country I had so long been wandering over The for a fine deep channel, at another split into nu over soe of a water-course upon it The country monotonous and sterile, its level only broken by low sandstone hills, or doones of sand, the whole bearing in its general appearance the stain
Mr Kennedy's last carees 13 rees 20 ained by141 degrees 51 itude, however, was by account, and I may have thrown it some few itude being also by account, I believe he may have placed his camp a little to the west of its true position; but, as the two points are now laid down, there is a distance of 98 geographical rees to the east of north
Ad the identity of the Victoria with Cooper's Creek, of which I do not think there is the slightest doubt, the course of the forrees W the very course Mr
Kennedy states it had apparently taken up when he left it ”The lowest carees 13 rees 20due south” If such is the case I ns of the natives, and been mistaken in my supposition that the vast basin into which I traced it, was the basin of Cooper's Creek, but I had so frequently remarked the rapid and almost instantaneous formation of such features in si the natives intended to convey
There are several facts illustrative of the structure and LAY, if I may use the expression, of the interior unfolded to us, in consequence of the farther knowledge Mr Kennedy's exploration has given of that part through which the Victoria flohich strike myself, who have so deep an interest in the subject, when they eneral reader; I have therefore thought it right to advert to them for a moment
He will not, however, have failed to observe, in the perusal of Mr
Kennedy's Report, that excepting where ses turned it to the ard, the tendency of the Victoria was to the SOUTH The same fact struck me in reference to the Murray river, as I proceeded down it in 1830 I could not fail to observe its efforts to run away in a southerly direction when not impeded by cliffs or sand-hills This would seem to indicate, that the dip of the continent is more directly to the south than to the west There is a line of rocky hills, that turn Cooper's Creek to the latter point irassy plains on which I supposed it took its rise Froeneral direction is to the ard for about eightyto the north-west, and tere 39, Vol II
of the present work, the other passing to the ard and laying all the country under water during the rainy season, which Mr Brown and I traversed on our journey to the north-west; the several creeks we discovered on that occasion, being nothing more than ramifications of Cooper's Creek, which thus, like all the other interior rivers of Australia, expends itself by overflowing extensive levels; but instead of for ee, terrassy plains, which are as wheat-fields to the natives, since the grass-seed they collect from them appears to constitute their principal food
I have observed in the beginning of this work, that the impression on my reat current had passed southwards through the Gulf of Carpentaria which had been split in two by so obstacle, that one branch of this current had taken the line of the Darling, the other having passed to the ard Now, it would appear, that the sources of the Victoria are in long 146 degrees 46 minutes, and we are aware, that the course of that river is to the WSW as far as the 139th meridian; unless, therefore, there is a low and depressed country between the sources of the Victoria, and the coast ranges traversed by Dr Leichhardt, through which the southerly current could have passed, ; and such, on an inspection of Sir Thomas Mitchell's map, appears to be the case, as he hasthe basins of the Victoria with the higher ranges traversed by Doctor Leichhardt, nearer the coast My object being to elicit truth, I have deemed it necessary to call the attention of the reader to this point, because it would appear to argue against the general conclusions I have drawn, since, if there is no apparent outlet, there could not have been any southerly current as I have supposed; whereas, if the features of the country could have justified such a conclusion, the general ones I have forthened
Mr Kennedy's survey of the Victoria establishes the fact, that there is not a single streae of the continent, from the northward or ard, between the 24th and 34th parallels of latitude, a distance of ly proves the depressed nature of the north-west interior, and would appear to confirm the opinion already expressed, that the Stony Desert is the great channel into which such rivers as have a sufficiently prolonged course, are ultireat portion of the easterly drainage tends How that singular feature may terminate, whether in an in land sea, or as an arid wilderness, stretching to the Great Australian Bight, it is ieneral tendency of the rivers to fall to the south, it may be that the Stony Desert, as Mr Arrowsmith supposes, has some connexion with Lake Torrens, but I think, for reasons already stated, that it passes far to the ard
It enerally known, that Dr Leichhardt is at this , in which, if he should prove successful, he will stand the first of Australian explorers It is to traverse the continent from east to west, nor will he be able to do this under a distance of more than 5000 antic journey, but was obliged to return, as his party contracted the ague, and he lost all his animals; but undaunted by these reverses, he left Moreton Bay in December last, and has not since been heard of One really cannot but admire such a spirit of enterprise and self-devotion, or be too earnest in our wishes for his prosperity Dr
Leichhardt intends keeping on the outskirts of the Desert all the way round to Swan River, and the difficulties he may have to encounter as well as the distance he reatly depend on its extent We can hardly hope for intelligence of this dauntless explorer for two years; but if such a period should elapse without any intelligence of hi to volunteer their services in the hope of rendering his have been raised to save the Wanderer at the Pole--should they not also be raised to carry relief to the Wanderer of the Desert? The present exploration of Dr Leichhardt, if successful, will put an end to every theory, and complete the discovery of the internal features of the Australian continent, and e look at the great blank in the map of that vast territory, we cannot but ad to the cause of Geography and Natural History, by the undertaking in which he is at present engaged It is doubtful to reatly extend the pastoral interests of the Australian colonies, for I ah which he will pass, is too warrowth of wool As I stated in the body of my work, the fleece on the sheep we took into the interior, ceased to grow at the Depot in lat 29 degrees 40 minutes, as did our own hair and nails; but local circumstances h it seereat dryness of the Australian atmosphere, where the heat is also excessive, as it must be in the interior and juxta-tropical parts of it, would prevent the growth of wool, by drying up the natural moisture of the skin Nevertheless, if Dr