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Le Geographe and the Casuarina remained at Kupang till June 3 twenty-eight days enjoying the hospitality of the Dutch. Peron made several excursions for collecting purposes, and once shot an alligator nine feet long, which he skinned.
Travelling over casuarina sandhills and some level triodia ground, we found there was a creek with eucalypts on it, but it was quite evident that none of the late showers had fallen there. Hardly any grass was to be found, the ground being open and stony, with thorny vegetation.
The Casuarina, making all sail for Nepean Bay westward, sighted the leading ship in Investigator Strait. But Baudin did not wait even then. He kept Le Geographe on her course, under a full head of sail, without permitting the Casuarina to come up and report, or inquiring after the success of her work. The two ships soon lost sight of each other.
We pushed on now for Mount Olga, and camped in casuarina and triodia sandhills without water. The night of the 5th June was very cold and windy; my only remaining thermometer is not graduated below 36 degrees. The mercury was down in the bulb this morning. Two horses straying delayed us, and it was quite late at night when Mount Olga was reached.
The nights were cold, and I confess that thoughts of the young kangaroo did obtrude at dinner, and were mingled with my kangaroo-steak. As we turned to our right in the afternoon in search of the Bogan, we encountered some casuarina scrub, to avoid which we had to wind a little, so that we only made the river at dusk, and at a part of the bed which was dry.
We found that dense brushes of casuarina lined the creek on both sides, beyond which, to our left, there was open rising ground, on which eucalypti, cypresses, and the acacia longifolia, prevailed; whilst to the east, plains seemed to predominate. None of them were seen during the day; a proof that they were entirely local.
As far as I followed it down, it formed the separation between the primitive rocks and the basalt, but received several creeks from the westward. In riding along we heard the cooees of natives, and passed several large camping places near the large water-holes of the creek. A Blackfellow emerged suddenly from the creek, holding a Casuarina branch in his hand, and pointing to the westward.
In several natural orders and genera departures from the course of development just described have been noted. In the natural order Rosaceae, the series Querciflorae, and the very anomalous genus Casuarina and others, instead of a single macrospore a more or less extensive sporogenous tissue is formed, but only one cell proceeds to the formation of a functional female cell.
For the first three miles, we passed several plains, and crossed a creek in which we recognised a Casuarina, which tree we had not seen since we left the Mitchell. We then came to a river from thirty to forty yards broad, and apparently very deep; the water was very soft, but not brackish, although affected by the tide, which caused it to rise about two feet.
Sombre casuarina, most mournful of the pine tribe, mingles with teak and mahogany in dense woods falling away on either side from the shadowy path. Innumerable monkeys swing from bough to bough, eating wild fruits, and breaking off twigs to pelt the intruders on their domains.
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