We had seen a great number of pigeons and white cockatoos, and we were sure that a greater supply of water was near, as many patches of burnt grass showed that the natives had been here very lately. Next morning, the 26th, when Charley returned with the horses, he told us that we had passed a fine lagoon, not a mile and a half off, at the left bank of the river, which the night had prevented us from seeing, and which the horses had found when returning on their tracks. We moved our camp to this lagoon, which was covered with Villarsia leaves, and contained a reddish water coloured by very minute floating bodies of that colour. The natives had surrounded it with dry sticks, leaving an opening on one side, for the purpose of taking emus, as before described. These birds were very numerous, and lived exclusively on the fruit of the little Severn tree, which was excessively bitter and imparted its quality to the meat; Charley and Brown, assisted by the dog, killed one of them. A cockatoo was shot, which in form and colours resembled the large white cockatoo, but was rather smaller, and the feathers of the breast were tipped with red. We saw the bones of a Jew fish, and a broken shell of Cymbium, in an old camp of the natives near the lagoon.
The apple-gum, the box, and the Moreton Bay ash composed a very open well-grassed forest, between the lagoon and the river; the latter had an E. N. E. and almost easterly course. I called this river or large creek, "Smith's Creek," after Mr. Smith, a gentleman who had shown us the greatest kindness and attention when we were staying at Darling Downs.
Our journey round the head of the gulf had shown that the "Plains of Promise" of Capt. Stokes extended from Big Plain River to the Nicholson, and that they extended farthest to the southward, along two large salt water rivers in the apex of the gulf, the more westerly of which was no doubt the Albert of Capt. Stokes, and the Maet Suyker of the Dutch navigators. These plains were bounded to the southward by box-flats, and drained by numerous creeks, which in their lower course were tolerably supplied with water. The most interesting fact, and which had already been observed by Capt. Stokes, was the moderate temperature of this part of the country. If my readers compare my observations on the weather from lat. 15 degrees 55 minutes at the east coast, to lat. 17 degrees 39 minutes on the west coast of the gulf, they will be struck by the general complaint of "cold nights." If they compare the direction of the winds, they will find that at the east coast the southerly and south-south-westerly winds were very cold, and that they became southerly and south-easterly at the apex, and turned still more to the eastward, at the west coast. In comparing these directions of the wind, I was led to the conclusion, that the large plains were the origin and the cause of these winds.
The bracing nature of the winds and of the cold nights, had a very beneficial influence on our bodies; we were all well, with the exception of Mr. Roper, who still suffered from the wound in his loins, and from a distressing diarrhoea. I am not aware of the season in which Capt. Stokes explored this part of the country; but it must not be forgotten, that the same causes which would produce cold winds in the winter, might be the cause of hot winds in the summer.
August 27.--We travelled about seventeen miles N. N. W. to lat. 17 degrees 11 minutes 9 seconds, through an uninterrupted scrub and broad-leaved tea-tree forest. Half way we crossed a broad watercourse, with long tracks of burnt grass. The Pandanus and the bloodwood grew on its limited flats. At the end of our stage, we came to a rocky watercourse, which we followed down, and in which a native dog betrayed to us a deep pool of water, covered with Villarsia leaves, and surrounded by Polygonums. Many of the dry water-holes we had passed were surrounded by emu traps; the tracks of these birds were exceedingly numerous, A grove of Pandanus was near the water on the sandy banks of the creek.
August 28.--We travelled about eleven miles N. N. W. to lat. 17 degrees 2 minutes 12 seconds, through the bleakest scrubby country we had ever met: nothing but tea-tree scrub, and that not even cheered by the occasional appearance of a gum tree, or of the blood-wood. After ten miles, we came to a salt water creek, rocky, with detached pools of water and deposits of salt. Following it up, we came to a well beaten foot-path of the natives, which brought us in a short time to a good supply of drinkable, though very brackish water. The sandstone hills before us and to the northward, were covered with low shrubs and the broad-leaved tea-tree, with wiry and stiff grasses, and looked very unpropitious. The rock was composed of quartz pebbles of different colours, imbedded in a red clayey paste.
We have commenced to carry with us not only our quart pots, but also our two gallon pot full of water.
August 29.--We travelled to lat. 16 degrees 58 minutes 27 seconds long. 138 degrees 25 minutes; a distance of about eight miles N.N.W. and N.W. over a more open country, with occasional patches of thick scrub. We crossed several watercourses and creeks; and came to a small river which flowed to the N. by E. and which I called the "Marlow," after Capt. Marlow of the Royal Engineers, who had kindly assisted me in the outfit of my expedition. We went down the river about two or three miles, and came to a plentiful supply of water, which was indicated, a long time before we arrived at it, by the call of the red-breasted cockatoos, noticed a few days since; but which was probably only a variety of the common species.
A low shrubby Acacia with sigmoid phyllodia was frequent on the hills. A little fly-catcher (Givagone brevirostris?) charmed us with its pretty note at our last camps. Bronze-winged pigeons were very numerous, and I saw a pair of Geophaps plumifera rising from under a shady rock, as I was riding down a rocky creek. Two black ducks and three cockatoos were shot; the long reaches of water down the river were covered with water-fowl, and Charley and Brown were so desirous of procuring some messes of black ducks, that they did their best to persuade me to stop; but, being anxious to escape from this scrubby country, I did not yield to their solicitations.
The crops of the large cockatoos were filled with the young red shoots of the Haemodorum, which were almost as pungent as chillis, but more aromatic; the plant abounded on the sandy soil. The small cockatoo of the plains, which we saw again in great numbers, seems to feed on a white root and on the honey of the whole seed-vessel, or the flower-bud, of the drooping tea-tree.