Page:Journals of Several Expeditions Made in Western Australia.djvu/218

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

189

Kangaroos, from their marks, must have been abundant, though we only saw one. I consider the country we were now traversing to constitute part of an area of high table-land, and the swamps upon it the sources of the streams we had hitherto encountered; for after we had advanced some distance further, the flow of the waters was in another direction, to the north and west, supplying, I at first thought, the Vasse; though I have since had reason to believe, the Seaward and western branch of the Blackwood, or some other river, if such a thing exists between Cape Naturaliste and the White Patch.

On the third stream, holding a westerly course, we dined; the land was open but sandy; the geology of the country continued the same; in the channels slabs of old red sand-stone were generally conspicuous. After dinner the face of nature exhibited little change as we walked on; in one of the plains my dog was accidentally shot. At the spot I had fixed for a bivouac, a considerable stream, I left Edwards and one of the men, while I proceeded with the other to look about me. I walked rather at random in a northerly direction, found again a succession of hills, rocky and precipitous, then returned and joined the other party, after an absence of about an hour and a half. From the time I at first found the water courses tending to the north and west, I had altered my route from N.E. to N., concluding that I was at least eastward of the Vasse.

Since, according to my reckoning, I was now nearly as far north as the Vasse itself—and as I had seen that the country for some distance before us was very hilly, whereas in the vicinity of the point I was making very large plains—since too I had