Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, Volume 2 / With Descriptions of the Recently Explored Region of Australia Felix, and of the Present Colony of New South Wales

by T. L. Mitchell

A thick fog hung over us in the morning but it did not impede our progress. For the first three miles our way was along the banks of the channel or lagoon beside which we had passed the night. It then crossed a polygonum flat and several dry hollows, beyond which I at length saw the rising ground of the river-berg and, immediately after, the river itself, flowing by the base of a precipitous red cliff in which the scrubby flat country we were travelling upon abruptly terminated. We had cut off a great bend of the Murray by our intricate journey among the lagoons; and had again reached the river precisely at the point most desirable.

HUTS OVER TOMBS.

On this upper ground we observed several tombs, all enclosed within parterres of the same boat-like shape first seen by us on the day we traced the Lachlan into the basin of the Murrumbidgee. Two of the tombs here consisted of huts, very neatly and completely thatched over, the straw or grass being bound down by a well-wrought net. Each hut had a small entrance on the south-west side, and the grave within was covered with dry grass or bedding on which lay however some pieces of wood. There was a third grave with coverings of the same kind, but it was not so neatly finished, nor was it covered with net.* There were also graves without any covering; one where it appeared to have been burnt; and two old-looking graves were open, empty, and about three feet deep.

(*Footnote. Isaiah 45:4. Who remain among the graves.] "The old Hebrews are charged by the prophet Isaiah with remaining among the graves and lodging in the monuments." See Lewis' Origines Hebraeae volume 3 page 381.)

ANOTHER DIVISION OF THE DARLING TRIBE.

We had not proceeded far through the scrub on the top of the precipice overhanging the river when the usual alarm term "the natives" was passed along to me from the people in the rear of our party. Piper had been told that we should soon see the other division of the Darling tribe, which was still ahead of us; and I concluded that these natives belonged to it and were awaiting us at this point where, as they had foreseen, we were sure to come upon the river. Four or five advanced up to us while the rest followed among the bushes behind. I recognised two men whom I saw last year on the Darling. They begged hard for axes and held out green boughs, but I had not forgotten the treachery of their burning boughs on our former interview and, thinking I recognised the tall man who had been the originator of the war, I went up to him with no very kind feeling; but I was informed he was only that man's brother. My altered manner however was enough for their quick glance; and indeed one of the best proofs that these natives belonged to the Darling tribe was the attention with which they watched me when they asked for tomahawks, and their speaking so much to Piper about Majy. Of the evil tendency of giving these people presents I was now convinced, and fully determined not to give more then. This resolution the natives having discovered very acutely, their ringleaders vanished like phantoms down the steep cliffs, and we heard no more of the rest. It is possible that this portion of the tribe had not then received intelligence of what had befallen the others or they would not have advanced so boldly up. Be that as it may they followed us no more, having probably heard in the course of the day from the division of the tribe which we had driven across the Murray.

BARREN SANDS AND THE EUCALYPTUS DUMOSA. PLANTS WHICH GROW ON THE SAND AND BIND IT DOWN.

The river taking a turn to the southward, we again entered the dumosa scrub but it was more open than we had seen it elsewhere. The soil consisted of barren sand; there was no grass, but there were tufts of a prickly bush which tortured the horses and tore to rags the men's clothes about their ankles. I observed that this bush and the Eucalyptus dumosa grew only where the sand seemed too barren and loose for the production of anything else; so loose indeed was it that, but for this dwarf tree and prickly grass, the sand must have drifted so as to overwhelm the vegetation of adjacent districts, as in other desert regions where sand predominates. Nature appears to have provided curiously against that evil here by the abundant distribution of two plants so singularly adapted to such a soil. The root of the Eucalyptus dumosa resembles that of a large tree; but instead of a trunk only a few branches rise above the ground, forming an open kind of bush, often so low that a man on horseback may look over it for miles. The heavy spreading roots however of this dwarf tree and the prickly grass together occupy the ground and seem intended to bind down the sands of the vast interior deserts of Australia. Their disproportioned roots also prevent the bushes from growing very close together and, the stems being leafless except at the top, this kind of eucalyptus is almost proof against the running fires of the bush. The prickly grass resembles at a distance, in colour and form, an overgrown bush of lavender; but the pedestrian and the horse both soon find that it is neither lavender nor grass, the blades consisting of sharp spikes which shoot out in all directions, offering real annoyance to men and horses.

On ascending a small sandhill about three P.M. I perceived that I could not hope to reach the river in the direction I was pursuing. Accordingly I turned to the left and, entering a rather extensive valley which was bounded on the south by the river-bergs at a distance of three or four miles, we encamped on the immediate bank of the Murray shortly before sunset. There was little grass about the river for the ferruginous finely-grained sandstone formed still the riverbank, and was exactly similar to the arenaceous rock on the eastern coast.

FISH CAUGHT.