[Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia by Charles Sturt]@TWC D-Link bookTwo Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia CHAPTER II 27/55
We were obliged to return to the plain on which we had breakfasted, and to sleep upon it. D'URBAN'S GROUP. D'Urban's Group is of compact sandstone formation.
Its extreme length is from E.S.E.to W.N.W., and cannot be more than from seven to nine miles, whilst its breadth is from two to four.
The central space forms a large basin, in which there are stunted pines and eucalyptus scrub, amid huge fragments of rocks.
It rises like an island from the midst of the ocean, and as I looked upon it from the plains below, I could without any great stretch of the imagination, picture to myself that it really was such. Bold and precipitous, it only wanted the sea to lave its base; and I cannot but think that such must at no very remote period have been the case, and that the immense flat we had been traversing, is of comparatively recent formation. We reached the camp on the 28th of the month, by nearly the same route; and were happy to find that, after the few days' rest they had enjoyed, there was a considerable improvement in the animals. Our experience of the nature of the country to the southward, and the westward, was such as to deter us from risking anything, by taking such a direction as was most agreeable to our views.
Nothing remained to us but to follow the creek, or to retreat; and as we could only be induced to adopt the last measure when every other expedient should have failed, we determined on pursuing our original plan, of tracing New Year's Creek as far as practicable. DESCRIPTION OF OXLEY'S TABLE LAND. Oxley's Table Land is situated in lat.
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