1817
June 30 Advancing over the plain westerly, on the edge of which we had encamped last night, we continued that course about 7 miles; bushy country affording me nothing interesting; the plants being the same as those of which so very frequent mention has been made. We made the angle of a large lagoon of considerable depth, thickly clothed with trees that had marks of inundation about 4 feet above the present level of its waters, and a few inches above the general flatness of the plain. I here gathered specimens of a species of Eucalyptus having a submucronated hemispherical operculum, and flowers of two colours, red and white, in terminal panicles, a tree about 30 feet high. I observed a little cryptogamous plant, called Azolla pinnata, floating on the surface of these waters in considerable abundance. Near our 8th mile Harrington Plains are in some measure terminated by a few scattered trees of Eucalypti stretching themselves across to the opposite brush in an irregular manner. Its continuance, open and extensive, evidently descending at its south western extremity, from the circumstance of our being able to distinguish the heads of trees and not their stems. Mr. Oxley has called them Molle’s Plains, in honour of the late Lieut.-Governor, Colonel Molle. Passing through a small tract of the burnt scrub called Polygonum junceum [Muehlenbeckia Cunninghami] we continued our journey about a mile and a half, when we considered that our horses, which were far behind, would scarcely be able to come up with us, in consequence of the bogginess and decayed nature of these plains. We passed through a thick brush of the rushy Polygonum and came upon the bank of the river, intending to halt for the night. On these plains I gathered seeds and specimens of a shrub with fleecy, sulcate crowded leaves. These leaves are like the succulent Salsola. Also another shrub entirely clothed with wool, having an echinated nut, many seeded. I observed a singular grass, dead, with long beards [stigmas] as in Zea; and the little recumbent Zygophyllum, which is sometimes very common, and in some instances appears to differ in habit, which may be caused by the shade or being smaller in all its parts, or which may be effected by increased sterility. The appearance of these plains is that of a gloomy desert with stunted trees and dry wiry tufts of grass. But if anything tends to enliven the scene or relieve the eye it is the bright golden flowers of a Senecio, with pinnately laciniated leaves. I gathered seeds of a shrub of Anredera sp., producing a bladdered capsule, 2-winged, containing a single seed in the centre. The river is as broad as ever! With little alteration, current slow, but the banks appear not so high as where we left it in the morning, and are muddy. We started two native dogs on the plains before us. We observed the marks of the natives on the trees, and the old impressions of their feet on the soft clayey soil. We likewise passed an old native bark hut. The general inclination of the river is south-westerly. Its banks are furnished with tolerable Blue Gums and Acacia stenophylla. One of our party caught a species of lizard on the plains, having on the back very rough scales, which are not imbricated but distinct from each other. It has no tail. Its body being terminated in a wedge-shaped stump.