Discoveries in Australia, Volume 1. / With an Account of the Coasts and Rivers Explored and Surveyed During / The Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, in the Years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43. / By Command of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. Also a Narrative / Of Captain Owen Stanley's Visits to the Islands in the Arafura Sea.

by John Lort Stokes

BANKS OF THE ADELAIDE.

For thirty miles of the upper part of the river the water was fresh; while the banks, excepting near the point of separation, were low, being not more than five feet above the present level of the river, a circumstance very favourable for irrigation, and the cultivation of rice. Fifteen miles from the mouth they were fringed by the growth of mangroves; and higher up many of the points were thickly wooded, while on either side stretched a vast extent of prairie country, dotted here and there with islands of timber, which served to break the native monotony of the scene. Somewhat less than halfway up, rose on both banks a thick jungle of bamboo, which, in places where the water was always fresh, attained the gigantic height of from 60 to 80 feet. Between 20 and 70 miles from the mouth the soil is a good light-coloured mould; above this, commencing where the bank of the river is marked by a coarse red gritty sandstone projection, the aspect of the country changes from that of low plains to a slightly wooded and gently undulating surface, in some places stony. This character continued to the furthest point reached in the boats, in latitude 12 degrees 57 minutes South, and longitude 131 degrees 19 minutes East.

When they had penetrated thus far into the new lands of Australia, the explorers returned, having experienced those sensations of delightful excitement, to which we have before alluded, and which naturally called forth strong emotions of regret in those who were denied a participation in the feverish enjoyment of discovery.

From the highest tree at Captain Wickham's furthest point, the appearance of the country was, as far as the eye could reach, one wearisome level, broken to the southward, at a distance of ten miles, by a rocky mound about 150 feet high.

UPPER PART OF THE RIVER.

The river, which for some distance had not been fifty yards wide, with a rocky bed in places, and banks from six to twenty feet high, was subject at this point to a tidal change of level of about three feet, but there was no perceptible stream, and the water which a few miles lower down had been muddy, was here quite clear. Small bamboos and other drift were observed in the branches of the trees eight or ten feet above the water, showing the height which the river attains at some seasons of the year. By the hollows on many of the plains, water appeared to have lain some time, and doubtless parts of this low land were periodically overflowed.

On the point dividing the upper branches of the river some coarse sand was washed up, which on examination was found to be of a granitic character, clearly showing the primary formation of the country through which the Adelaide flowed. The only rocks noticed in the parts traversed by the boats were, as I have before said, of red porous sandstone. The smoke of several large fires was observed up the country, but none of the natives were seen.

MONKEY-BIRDS.

Towards the upper part of the river they noticed a strange bird, very much like a guineafowl in size and manner of running along the ground. The colour was speckled white and brown. This, doubtless, from Mr. Bynoe's description of one he wounded on the coast in the neighbourhood of the Adelaide, must have been the Leipoa ocellata of Gould, one of the mound or tumuli-building birds, first seen in Western Australia by Mr. George Moore, and afterwards on the North-west coast, and in South Australia by Captain Grey. Although known to range over a large expanse of the continent, this was the first time it was discovered in Northern Australia.

In the reaches where the bamboo grew, flights of large vampires (resembling the Pteropus rubricollis of Geoff.) were met with: they kept continually flying to and fro close over the boats as they passed up, making a screeching disagreeable noise, which, however, was far less unpleasant than the mildewy odour with which they filled the air, calling to mind the exclamation placed by our immortal bard in the mouth of Trinculo. The heavy flap of the leathern wings of these monkey-birds, as the men called them, was singular, while sometimes a flight would darken the verdure of a bamboo, which, yielding to their weight, bent low, as if before a passing gust of wind. To fix themselves appeared always a difficult, and was certainly a noisy operation, each apparently striving to alight upon the same spot. They first cling to the bamboo by means of the long claw, or hook attached to the outer edge of the wing, and then gradually settle themselves.