SINGULAR FOSSILS NEAR THE CAMP.—INTERESTING PLANTS DISCOVERED.—ASCENT OF MOUNT FARADAY.—RETURN TO THE WARREGO.—A NATIVE OLD MAN.—PASS BY MOUNT OWEN.—THE MARANOÀ.—RECROSS THE MINOR STREAMS.—ITS TRIBUTARIES.—NONDESCRIPT ANIMAL.—POSSESSION CREEK.—A HORSE KILLED BY ACCIDENT.—APPROACH THE CAMP OF MR. KENNEDY.—FIND ALL WELL THERE.—MANY PLANTS FOUND THERE.—HIS ACCOUNT OF THE NATIVES' VISITS.—RIDE TO MOUNT SOWERBY.—FOSSILS FOUND THERE.——THE WHOLE PARTY FINALLY QUITS THE DEPÔT CAMP.—TRACE THE MARANÒA DOWNWARDS.—OPEN DOWNS ON ITS BANKS.—WATER SCARCE.—REQUISITE PONDS.—REACH ITS JUNCTION WITH THE BALONNE.—TRACES OF HORSEMEN ALONG OUR OLD TRACK.—THE PARTY ARRIVES, AND HALTS, AT ST. GEORGE'S BRIDGE.—MR. KENNEDY SENT TO RECONNOITRE THE COUNTRY IN A DIRECT LINE TOWARDS MOUNT RIDDELL.
7TH AND 8TH OCTOBER.—THESE two days were devoted to the completion of my maps of the late tour, and of drawings of two of the birds seen on the Victoria. Our horses required a day or two's rest, and I had enough to do in my tent, although the heat was intense.
9TH OCTOBER.—Once more I rode into the lower country a few miles, to take a sketch of another remarkable hill. In the afternoon I examined the sandstone caverns in the hill opposite to our camp; some very curious organic remains having been found there by one of the party during my absence. I found that these occurred on the lower side of sandstone strata, and that they had become denuded by the decomposition of sandstone underneath. We were to leave this camp next morning. The men were on very reduced rations, and I was apprehensive that we might be disappointed in our search for water in many places where we had before encamped and found it. In the afternoon, the sky became suddenly overcast, distant thunder was heard; and the southern portion of the heavens, over the country to which we were about to return, was evidently discharging some heavy rain there. At twilight, the rain commenced to fall heavily at our camp, and continued to do so during four hours. Such a supply came most opportunely for us, and, although I could not be so vain as to suppose that the thunder rolled only for our benefit alone, I felt as thankful as though it had. This day I saw on the cavernous hill the woolly ACTINOTUS HELIANTHI, one of the most singular of umbelliferous plants; and, on descending to the base, a white variety of the COMESPERMA SYLVESTRIS, with smooth branches: unlike the kind observed in September, it did not grow above one foot high. A small shrub grew on the rocks, a pretty little Calytrix, near C. MICROPHYLLA A Cunn. (from Port Essington and Melville Island); but the branches, with their leaves, are more stout, and the bracts more obtuse. Sir W. Hooker supposes it to be a new species. We here found this day a woolly-leaved plant, with long branching panicles of brilliantly blue flowers, which Professor de Vriese has ascertained to be a new genus of the natural order of Goodeniads, and which he calls LINSCHOTENIA DISCOLOR.[*] Thermometer, meter, at sunrise, 60°; at noon, 94°; at 4 p.m., 76°; at 9, 64°;—with wet bulb, 64°.
[* LINSCHOTENIA DE VRIESE. Calyx superus, limbo obsoleto. Corollae quinquefidae tubo hine fisso, lobis majoribus margine utroque auriculato-crispis, alatisve, duobus minoribus lanceolatis, interne appendice proprio cuculliformi instructis. Antherae imberbes, cohaerentes. Filamenta libera, quandoque subflexuosa. Ovarium uniovulatum; stylus inflexus; stigmatis indusium ore nudum; semen in nuce solitarium. Genus dicatum Jano Huigenio Linschotenio, geographo, navarcho, itineratori seculi XVI., qui historiae naturalis, imprimis vero geographiae et rei nauticae progressui eximie profuit. Linschotenia Dampierae proxime habitu et plurimis cum floris, tum habitus characteribus, paracolla cuculliforme ab omnibus Goodeniacearum generibus huc usque cognitis, diversa. L. DISCOLOR, suffruticosa, erecta, albo-lineata, foliis alternis, petiolatis, oblongis, acutis, integris, planis, superne pallide viridibus, glaberrimis, inferne densissime albo-lanatis. Inflorescentia spicata, ramosa, griseo-lanata, floribus subsessilibus, basi bracteolatis, corollis quinquelobis, lilacinis, extus griseo-barbatis; paracorollis nigrescentibus. Legit anno 1846, Praefectus militaris nobil. T. L. Mitchell in Nova-Hollandia subtropica. Planta elegantissima, inter Scaevolas persimilis habitu SC. REINWARDTII de Vriese in LEHM. PL. PREISS. videtur esse suffruticosa. Caulis est teres. Folia sunt alterna, fere 7 cent. longa et 1½ cent. lata, petiolata, petiolo ad insertionem quodammodo crassiore, fere ½ cent. longo, integerrima, utrinque acuta, nervo medio crassiore, subtus lanata, fere alutacea, albissima; superne viridia, opaca; bracteae lineari-lanceolatae, utraque superficie lanatae, acutae; rhachis elongata, fere 10-15 cent. longa, inferne albo-lanata, sursum griseo-lanata. Pedunculi communes 5-10 cent. longi, patentes, alterni, griseo-tomentosi. Flores alterni, sessiles, bracteolati, bracteolis suboppositis; calyces villosi, limbis obsoletis; corollae persistentis lobis marginibus inflexis, externe medio calycis instar hirsutis, interne glaberrimis: cucullis corollae badiis, convexis, uno latere hiantibus, interiori mediaeque loborum parti affixis; filamenta libera, filiformia, antherae his continuae, glabrae. Stigma capitatum, indusio imberbe. —DE VRIESE.]
10TH OCTOBER.—We commenced our retreat with cattle and horses in fine condition, and with water in every crevice of the rocks. That in the reedy swamp near the pyramids, had a sulphureous taste, and nausea and weak-stomach were complained of by some of the men. I certainly did not think the swamp a very desirable neighbour, with the thermometer sometimes above 100°, and therefore I was more desirous to retire from it. As the party returned along their former track, I went to the summit of Mount Faraday, and observed a number of useful angles for my map. Mr. Stephenson was with me, and found some new plants and insects, while I ascertained the height, by the barometer, to be 2523 feet above the sea. The plants growing there were COMMELINA UNDULATA, THYSANOTUS ELATIOR, PLECTRANTHUS PARVIFLORUS, the yellow VIGNA LANCEOLATA, with a villous form of AJUGA AUSTRALIS, and a little PILOTHECA, with narrow, closepressed leaves.[*] The mountain is volcanic, the broken side of the crater being towards the N.W. Some compact basalt appeared near the summit. On reaching the Warrego in the evening, we found the party had arrived there at 3 p.m., the distance travelled comprising two former days' journeys. They had also found water close to the camp, where none had been when they had been there before. Many beautiful shrubs were now beginning to bloom. The BURSARIA INCANA was now covered with its panicles of white flowers; the OZOTHAMNUS DIOSMOEFOLIUS, a shrub four feet high, was loaded with small bulbs of snow white flowers; a downy variety of LOTUS AUSTRALIS, with pink flowers[*], was common on the open ground; the ACACIA PODALYRIOEFOLIA was now forming its fruit; in the open forest we found a beautiful little GOMPHOLOBIUM[***]; the HAKEA PURPUREA, a spiny-leaved, hard shrub, with numerous crimson leaves[****], and the EUPHORBIA EREMOPHILA, an inconspicuous species of SPURGE.[*****] Mr. Stephenson and I had been so busy collecting these on our way back, that we only reached the camp at sunset. Thermometer, at sunrise, 58°; at noon, 75°; at 4 p.m., 82; at 9, 62°;—with wet bulb, 59°.
[* P. CILIATA (Hook. MS.); ramulis pilosis, foliis erectis subimbricatis linearibus obtusis ciliatis dorso convexis glandulosis superne planis nudis, petalis ovali-ellipticis obtusis marginibus extus albopubescentibus. —Allied to P. AUSTRALIS, but different in the leaves, which are here ciliated at the margin, very glandulous on the back; and in the flowers, which are smaller, the petals more obtuse, and having a broad, white line of pubescence round the margin at the back.]
[** L. AUSTRALIS var. PUBESCENS, ramis pedunculisque pilis mollibus patentibus vestitis. G. B.]
[*** G. FOLIOLOSUM (Benth. MS.) foliis impari-pinnatis, foliolis 15-25 obovato-truncatis obcordatisve glabris, petiolis ramulisque pilosulis, racemis terminalibus subcorymbosis laxis paucifloris. Fruticulus ramosissimus foliolis confertis vix lineam longis.]
[**** H. PURPUREA (Hook. MS.) foliis tereti-filiformibus rigidis trifidis segmentis simplicibus furcatisve mucronatis glabris, floribus purpureis pedicellisque glabris, capsulis obovatis acutis lignosis stipitatis subtuberculatis.]
[***** E. EREMOPHILA (All. Cunn. in Hook. Herb.); fruticosa, ramulis fastigiatis foliisque parvis linearibus dentato-scrratis glabris, capsulis globosotriangularibus laevibus glabris.—Collected by Allan Cunningham in Dirk Hartog's island.]