Jump to content

Page:Tracks of McKinlay and party across Australia.djvu/392

From Wikisource
This page has been validated.
344
TRACKS ACROSS AUSTRALIA.

plenty of water. Mr. McKinlay tried to cross the Leichhardt in one or two places, but failed, so we have to go down to the falls; the banks very precipitous. Came to camp on a lagoon.

23rd. Started on a bearing of 135°. We had an awful job to cross at the falls; the rocks were so rugged and slippery that several of the bullocks fell and barked their legs between the rocks; it took us a long time to get over. After crossing, a marked tree was observed, and the remains of an old camping place; the trees were cast about, and much bruised; the large tree was marked—


L
EE 15
1862
C 5

the arrow pointing upwards; so up one of our fellows got to see if anything was hidden, but after a long search, nothing was found. This was one of Landsborough's camps.

We went a short stage to-day from the detention at the falls, and camped at a lagoon with plenty of duck, teal, etc. I forgot to mention that we found a broken bottle at the foot of the tree, and we imagined that there might have been documents left in it. This we afterwards found to be erroneous, when we saw Landsborough in Melbourne, as he had not buried anything there. The