We heard some subdued cooees, not very far from our camp, which I thought might originate from natives returning late from their excursions, and whose attention had been attracted by our fires. I discharged a gun to make them aware of our presence; after which we heard no more of them.
June 22.--We travelled about twelve miles N. W. 6 degrees W. to lat. 16 degrees 3 minutes 11 seconds, and encamped at a swamp or sedgy lagoon, without any apparent outlet; near which a great number of eagles, kites, and crows were feasting on the remains of a black Ibis. We passed a very long lagoon, and, in the latter part of our stage, the country had much improved, both in the increased extent of its forest land, and in the density and richness of its grass.
June. 23.--We travelled eight or nine miles in a W. N. W. direction to latitude 16 degrees 0 minutes 26 seconds, over many Bauhinia plains with the Bauhinias in full blossom. The stiff soil of these plains was here and there marked by very regular pentagonal, hexagonal, and heptagonal cracks, and, as these cracks retain the moisture of occasional rains better than the intervening space, they were fringed with young grass, which showed these mathematical figures very distinctly. We passed a great number of dry swamps or swampy water-holes; sometimes however containing a little water. They were surrounded by the Mangrove myrtle (Stravadium), which was mentioned as growing at the lower Lynd. The bottom of the dry swamps was covered with a couch grass, which, like all the other grasses, was partly withered.
Bustards were numerous, and the Harlequin pigeon was seen in large flocks. Wallabies abounded both in the high grass of the broken country near the river, and in the brush. Mr. Roper shot one, the hind quarters of which weighed 15 1/2 lbs.: it was of a light grey colour, and was like those we had seen at Separation Creek. Charley and Brown got seventeen ducks, on one of the sedgy lagoons.
I visited the bed of the river: its banks were covered with a rather open vine brush. Palm trees became numerous, and grew forty or fifty feet high, with a thick trunk swelling in the middle, and tapering upwards and downwards. Sarcocephalus, the clustered fig-tree, and the drooping tea-tree, were also present as usual. The bed of the river, an immense sheet of sand, was full a mile and a half broad, but the stream itself did not exceed thirty yards in width.
During the night we had again a few drops of rain.
June 24.--We continued our journey about nine miles west by north to latitude 15 degrees 59 minutes 30 seconds, over a rather broken country alternating with Bauhinia plains and a well-grassed forest. The banks of a large lagoon, on which several palm trees grew, were covered with heaps of mussel-shells. Swarms of sheldrakes were perching in the trees, and, as we approached, they rose with a loud noise, flying up and down the lagoon, and circling in the air around us. A chain of water-holes, fringed with Mangrove myrtle, changed, farther to the westward, into a creek, which had no connection with the river, but was probably one of the heads of the Nassau. We crossed it, and encamped on a water-hole covered with Nymphaeas, about a mile from the river, whose brushy banks would have prevented us from approaching it, had we wished to do so.
Though the easterly winds still prevailed, a slight north-west breeze was very distinctly felt, from about 11 o'clock a.m.
June 25.--We travelled about ten miles N.N.W. to latitude 15 degrees 51 minutes 26 seconds, but did not follow the river, which made large windings to the northward. It was very broad where Brown saw it last, and, by his account, the brush was almost entirely composed of palm trees. He saw a little boat with a fine Cymbium shell floating on the water. Our road led us over a well grassed forest land, and several creeks, which, although rising near the river, appeared to have no communication with it. Some plains of considerable size were between the river and our line of march; they were well grassed, but full of melon-holes, and rose slightly towards the river, forming a remarkable water-shed, perhaps, between the Nassau and the Mitchell. As we approached the river, we entered into a flat covered with stunted box, and intersected by numerous irregular water-courses. The box was succeeded by a Phyllanthus scrub, through which we pushed, and then came to a broad creek, filled with fine water, but not running, although high water-marks on the drooping tea-trees proved that it was occasionally flooded. We did not understand, nor could we ascertain, in what relation this singular country and the creek stood to the river, of which nothing was to be seen from the right bank of the creek.
The scrub, and the high grass along the creek, were swarming with white flanked wallabies, three of which Brown and Charley succeeded in shooting; and these, with a common grey kangaroo caught by Spring, and five ducks shot by Brown, provided our larder with a fine supply of game.