United States or Spain ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
We however surprised two natives cutting away at an opossum's hole in a tree at some distance to our left; and on seeing us they made off with great speed towards the northern bend of the river and our former route. On reaching our old encampment we discovered new beauty in the plains on the Bogan when compared with those on the banks of the Darling.
The chaps often used to drop round and have a yarn with Bogan and cheer him up, and one evening I was sitting smoking with him, and yarning about old times, when he got very quiet all of a sudden, and I saw a tear drop from under one of his shutters and roll down his cheek.
Cunningham. I was now about to follow the Bogan further up in order to make sure of water, and thus to leave our track, with the intention of falling into it again at Cogoorduroy or Cookopie Ponds. We had now passed the scene of Mr. Cunningham's distresses, and I judged that a man on horseback might travel safely along our old route with despatches.
"Awh, give the ould sowl a pinny now," said a sympathetic voice, "'t will bring you luck, more power to you." And Mike Bogan, the tears streaming down his honest cheeks, plunged deep into his pocket and threw the old beggar a broad five-shilling piece. It was a monstrous fortune to Peggy.
The continuous course of the Bogan into the Darling being thus at length determined, Duck creek, a deeper chain of ponds in the level country nearer to the Macquarie, could only be considered the final channel for the waters of that river in their course towards the Darling; and it only remained to be ascertained on our return at what point these waters of the Macquarie separated during its floods from the main stream.
The extremes between this last and our winter's cold, when the thermometer descended to 24 degrees was 133 degrees. I observe that Sir Thomas Mitchell gives the temperature at the Bogan, in his tent at 117 degrees and when exposed to the wind at 129 degrees; but I presume that local causes, such as radiation from stones and sand, operated more powerfully with us than in his case.
The next is the Myall tribe, who inhabit the central parts about Cudduldury, at the great bend of the Bogan to the northward. These natives can scarcely speak a word of our language, and they have several curious customs. Some of the young men are gaily dressed with feathers, are all called by one name, Talambe, and great care is taken of them.
So bungan gallo was the name of the lower Bogan, and Bogan gallo that of the upper Bogan. Goindura I understood to mean salt, in consequence of that word having been used by the chief of the Bogan when I showed him some salt.
We travelled towards our former camp of May 14, but the distance being sixteen miles it was too much for our weak animals. We halted therefore four miles short of it; and though we turned a mile off the route to the eastward in search of the Bogan we did not find it until after we had encamped, and then at nearly a mile further to the eastward still.
So I told her how we made it up to meet somewhere near the Queensland border. Jim to come up the Murray from Melbourne, and so on to the Darling, and we to make across for the Lower Bogan. If we could carry this out all right and it looked pretty likely the rest of the game would be easy; and once on blue water O my God, what new creatures we should all be!
Word Of The Day