In the course of the night (2 A.M.) we had one of those sudden heavy squalls from off the land which are so common on this coast. I slept on deck and was called to hear a loud roaring on the sh.o.r.e: this was evidently the noise of a rushing wind, which gradually drew nearer and nearer and at last reached us, accompanied by lightning, thunder, and heavy rain; it did not however last for more than twenty minutes, and we received no damage from it.

December 8.

Whilst the party continued the pathway I landed on the sandy beach and explored the interior of the country for several miles. We found but very little fresh water and the country was dreadfully burnt up; the heavy rain which had fallen last night however gave signs of the approach of the wet season. We pa.s.sed several dry watercourses, in many of which we dug for it, but all that we obtained was brackish. We had another squall this afternoon, similar to last night's.

LANDING STOCK. LABOUR IN LANDING STORES.

December 9.

This day we pitched the tents, disembarked the sheep and goats, and some of the stores. It was no slight pleasure to see for the first time those animals landed on a new country, and they appeared themselves to rejoice in their escape from the close confinement on shipboard.

We here first hoisted the British flag, and went through the ceremony of taking possession of the territory in the name of Her Majesty and her heirs for ever.

The next few days were pa.s.sed in moving the stores from the landing-place to the tent; as it was necessary that before I allowed the schooner to start we should be amply provided with all necessaries so as to be able to maintain ourselves for some time, in the event of anything happening to the vessel: this was very fatiguing work for the whole party but they all exerted themselves with the most strenuous energy, especially Mr.

Lushington; and our labours were varied by several amusing novelties which relieved the monotony of the employment.

REMARKABLE FISHES.

Sometimes as we sat at our dinner near the landing-place we watched a strange species of fish (genus Chironectes, Cuvier). These little animals are provided with arms, at least with members shaped like such as far as the elbow, but the lower part resembles a fin; they are amphibious, living equally well on the mud or in the water; in moving in the mud they walk, as it were, on their elbows, and the lower arm or fin then projects like a great splay foot; but in swimming the whole of this apparatus is used as a fin. They have also the property of being able to bury themselves almost instantaneously in the soft mud when disturbed. The uncouth gambols and leaps of these anomalous creatures were very singular.

Another remarkable fish was a species of mullet which, being left by the retreat of the high tides in the pools beyond the rounded rocks at the head of the landing-place, was obliged to change its element from salt to fresh water, which by a very remarkable habit it appeared to do without suffering any inconvenience. The natural hue of this fish was a very pale red, but when they had been for some time in the fresh water this reddish tinge became much deeper, and when of this colour I have found them in streams a considerable distance from the sea, as if, like our salmon, they had quitted it for the purpose of sp.a.w.ning. Indeed birds, insects, and all things we saw, were so new and singular that our attention was kept constantly excited by the varied objects which pa.s.sed before us.

December 11.

I went on board in the morning for the purpose of preparing my letters, and about 10 A.M. it was reported to me that a party of natives had come down to one of the sandy beaches and were fishing there. I immediately went upon deck and saw four natives in the sea opposite to the beach, running about and fishing. Captain Browne went on sh.o.r.e at once with me to try and parley with them, but as we approached the land they ran away; we remained for some time on the beach and tried to follow their tracks up into the country, but could see nothing more of them.

This night at 8 P.M. we had another sudden squall from off the land, accompanied with thunder, lightning, and heavy rain; it blew so hard that we were obliged to let go the best bower anchor, but as usual it only lasted twenty minutes.

PREPARATIONS FOR SENDING THE VESSEL TO TIMOR.

As Mr. Lushington was to accompany the schooner to Timor, and I was anxious to ascertain which would be the best direction for us to move off in on his return, I determined to commence my exploring trips as soon as possible. All hands still continued busily engaged in landing the stores and conveying them to the tents; but though the men worked hard our progress was slow. Everything had to be carried on the men's shoulders, for the path, after the great trouble and labour we had bestowed on it, was still so intricate and rocky that it was impossible to use even a hand-barrow. The intense heat of the sun, too, incommoded the men very much at first; but by the 16th of December all the stores were landed, and a considerable supply of water was taken off to the vessel. I determined therefore now to start in my first exploring excursion, leaving to Mr. Lushington the task of seeing the watering of the schooner completed before he left for Timor.

CHAPTER 6. HANOVER BAY AND ITS VICINITY.

NATIVES SEEN.

Sunday December 17.

This morning directly after breakfast I read prayers to the men, and then commenced my preparations for the excursion on which I intended to start in the evening. Whilst I was occupied in arranging my papers Mr.

Lushington observed two natives sitting on the rocks on the top of the cliffs which overlooked the valley, and gazing down intently on us. The instant that he made friendly signs to them they rose from their seats and began to retreat. Some of the party then called to them and one of the natives answered; but they still moved rapidly away. I would not allow them to be followed for fear of increasing their alarm, and in the hope that they would return, but was disappointed. It must have awakened strange feelings in the breast of these two savages, who could never before have seen civilized man, thus to have sat spectators and overlookers of the every action of such incomprehensible beings as we must have appeared; and the relation to their comrades of the wonders they had witnessed could not have been to them a whit less marvellous than the tales of the grey-headed Irish peasant, when he recounts the freaks of the fairies, "whose midnight revels by the forest side or fountain" he has watched intently from some shrub-clad hill.

COMMENCEMENT OF FIRST EXCURSION.

I started in the evening, accompanied by Corporal John Coles and Private R. Mustard, both of the corps of Royal Sappers and Miners, and for a short distance by two or three others of the party from the camp. We moved up the ravine in which we were encamped in a nearly due south direction, and after following this course about a mile turned up a branch ravine to the left, bearing 87 degrees from the north.

CHARACTER OF THE SCENERY. GEOLOGICAL PHENOMENA.

The romantic scenery of this narrow glen could not be surpa.s.sed. Its width at bottom was not more than forty or fifty feet, on each side rose cliffs of sandstone between three and four hundred feet high and nearly perpendicular; lofty paper-bark trees grew here and there, and down the middle ran a beautiful stream of clear, cool water, which now gushed along, a murmuring mountain torrent, and anon formed a series of small cascades. As we ascended higher the width contracted; the paper-bark trees disappeared; and the bottom of the valley became thickly wooded with wild nutmeg and other fragrant trees. c.o.c.katoos soared, with hoa.r.s.e screams, above us, many-coloured parakeets darted away, filling the woods with their playful cries, and the large white pigeons which feed on the wild nutmegs cooed loudly to their mates, and battered the boughs with their wings as they flew away.

The spot I chose to halt at for the night was at the foot of a lofty precipice of rocks, from which a spring gushed forth. Those who had accompanied us from the camp now returned, leaving me and the two soldiers alone and about to penetrate some distance into an utterly unknown country. We were each provided with ten days' provisions and, confident in the steadiness and courage of my men, I had not the slightest anxiety--feeling that as long as we maintained a cool and determined bearing the natives would make no attacks upon us that we could not repel.

We soon erected a little hut of bark, then kindled a fire and cooked our supper, consisting of tea and two white pigeons which we had shot; and by the time our repast was finished it was nearly dark. My companions laid down to sleep: I remained up for a short time to think alone in the wilderness, and then followed their example.

ASCENT OF A GLEN.

December 18.

At break of day we were again upon our route, which lay up the valley we had slept in; but, as each of us carried ten days' provisions and a day's water, besides our arms, the progress we made in a tropical climate, when thus laden, was necessarily slow and laborious; but the beauty of the landscape and the solicitude we all felt to see more of this unexplored land cheered us on.

TABLELAND AT THE SUMMIT.

Having at length reached the tableland which this valley drained we found ourselves in the midst of a forest, differing widely from anything we had before seen. The soil beneath our feet was sandy and thickly clothed with spinifex (a p.r.i.c.kly gra.s.s) which in spite of our thick trousers slightly but continually wounded our legs. The trees were lofty and some of them of considerable circ.u.mference; but the trunks of all were charred and blackened by constant fires: this circ.u.mstance, and their slight and thin, yet strikingly graceful foliage, gave them a most picturesque appearance.

Every here and there in the wood rose lofty and isolated pinnacles of sandstone rock, fantastic in form, and frequently overgrown with graceful creeping and climbing plants which imparted to them a somewhat of mystery and elegance. In other parts rose the gigantic ant-hills so much spoken of by former visitors of these sh.o.r.es; and in the distance we saw occasionally the forms of the timid kangaroos, who stole fearfully away from the unknown disturbers of their solitude.

ANOTHER VALLEY.

But when we arrived at the extremity of the tableland I felt somewhat disappointed at beholding a deep narrow ravine at my feet, precisely resembling in character the one we had left, and beyond this a second sandstone range, wooded as that on which we stood; in about half an hour we gained the bottom of the ravine and found that a rapid stream ran through it, which, being the first we had discovered, I named the Lushington, after the father of my a.s.sociate in this expedition, and in accordance with a determination I had made before starting.

Mustard (one of the men with me) being ill, I determined to halt here for breakfast and, having completed this meal, I was sorry to find that he was still too unwell to proceed; such however being the case I was compelled to halt for the day: leaving Coles therefore to take care of him, I strolled off to explore the valley alone. Except in being much larger it differed in no respect from the first in which we encamped, and I found that within about half a mile below the spot where I had left the men it terminated in a salt-water inlet, nearly choked up with mangroves.

On returning to them I found Mustard somewhat better; to our annoyance however heavy rain set in, accompanied by thunder and lightning; and as we had no shelter but what some overhanging rocks afforded us we pa.s.sed a very uncomfortable night.

December 19.

Mustard was still not quite well; we therefore started late and travelled slowly, keeping nearly in a south-east direction. We thus gradually ascended the second sandstone range, the summit of which was a tableland, at this point about half a mile wide.

GEOLOGICAL PHENOMENA.

We here remarked a very curious circ.u.mstance. Several acres of land on this elevated position were nearly covered with lofty isolated sandstone pillars of the most grotesque and fantastic shapes, from which the imagination might easily have pictured to itself forms equally singular and amusing. In one place was a regular unroofed aisle, with a row of ma.s.sive pillars on each side; and in another there stood upon a pedestal what appeared to be the legs of an ancient statue, from which the body had been knocked away.

Some of these time-worn columns were covered with sweet-smelling creepers, while their bases were concealed by a dense vegetation, which added much to their very singular appearance. The height of two or three which I measured was upwards of forty feet; and, as the tops of all of them were nearly upon the same level, that of the surrounding country must at one period have been as high as their present summits, probably much higher.

From the top of one of these pillars I surveyed the surrounding country and saw on every side proofs of the same extensive degradation--so extensive, indeed, that I found it very difficult to account for; but the gurgling of water, which I heard beneath me, soon put an end to the state of perplexity in which I was involved, for I ascertained that streams were running in the earth beneath my feet; and, on descending and creeping into a fissure in the rocks, I found beneath the surface a cavern precisely resembling the remains that existed above ground, only that this was roofed, whilst through it ran a small stream which in the rainy season must become a perfect torrent. It was now evident to me that ere many years had elapsed the roof would give way, and what now were the b.u.t.tresses of dark and gloomy caverns would emerge into day and become columns clad in green, and resplendent in the bright sunshine.

GRADUAL DEGRADATION OF THE LAND.

In this state they would gradually waste away beneath the ever-during influence of atmospheric causes, and the material being then carried down by the streams, through a series of caverns resembling those of which they once formed a portion, would be swept out into the ocean and deposited on sandbanks, to be raised again, at some remote epoch, a new continent, built up with the ruins of an ancient world.

I subsequently, during the season of the heavy rains, remarked the usual character of the mountain streams to be that they rose at the foot of some little elevation which stood upon a lofty tableland composed of sandstone, then flowed in a sandy bed for a short distance and afterwards mysteriously sank in the cracks and crevices made in the rocks from atmospheric influences, and did not again reappear until they had reached the foot of the precipice which terminated the tableland whence they sprang; here they came foaming out in a rapid stream which had undoubtedly worked strange havoc in the porous sandstone rocks among which it held its subterraneous course.

What the amount of sand annually carried down from the north-western portion of Australia into the ocean may be we have no means whatever of ascertaining; that it is sufficient to form beds of sand of very great magnitude is attested by the existence of numerous and extensive sandbanks all along the coast. One single heavy tropical shower of only a few hours' duration washed down, over a plot of ground which was planted with barley, a bed of sand nearly five inches deep, which the succeeding showers again swept off, carrying it further upon its way towards the sea.

The s.p.a.ce of ground covered with these columns gradually contracted its dimensions as we proceeded; the columns themselves became nearer and nearer to each other until they at length formed walls of cliffs on each side of us, and we finally reached a point where a single lofty pillar, standing in front of a dry cascade, formed the centre of an amphitheatre of sandstone. There was some water in a little natural basin at the base of the cliffs. I determined therefore to halt here for breakfast and, leaving the men at the foot of the cascade to prepare some tea, I clambered to its summit, and found myself on another tableland similar to that which I had just left, and covered in the same manner with natural columns.

SANDSTONE CAVERNS.

Some distance from the top of the cascade I discovered a cavern, or rather huge hole in the water-course, into which, thinking it might contain fossil bones, I descended as far as the first ledge, and I then perceived that the water pouring through this cavern in the rainy season was cutting off another rock of sandstone similar to the remarkable pillar in front of the cascade. The water in the basin below must have filtered out from this cavern. On a further examination I found that a precisely similar series of operations was going on throughout the whole amphitheatre of cliffs which bounded the tableland we had been traversing during the morning.