A short walk in the Australian bush

Ludwig Leichhardt

Note: Text in square brackets [ ] has been added by the translator. Doubtful readings are indicated by [?] and words that are illegible in the German original are indicated by [...]. Leichhardt's marginal notes are enclosed by curly brackets { }.

1 April 1842, Sydney

I will sit down in the shade of the tall Eucalyptus and press my cheeks against its white bark and listen to the whispering of its lance-shaped leaves, which the refreshing sea-wind ruffles, while the carefree cicada sings its shrill song among them. So long as I have God in my heart and His Nature before my eyes, I shall always be content. And He will not forsake me!

* * *

On Monday I made an excursion in the direction of Botany Bay. I had heard much about the bush of Botany Bay and was a little astonished to have my expectations disappointed. Sandhills, like the dunes by the sea, yet with a solid sandstone core, lie confusedly beside each other, with no particular direction, enclosing trough-shaped hollows, at the bottom of which small ponds of water are found at this time of the year. The sand is white and looks as if it might well be sandstone ground down by the activity of a former sea. Towards the western slope, up which we climbed, everything was covered with Pteris (bracken). Gradually there appeared Banksia shrubs, low Eucalyptus bushes, and thin-leaved shrubs, on which mantis of various colours were crawling about. Epeirus and a very big Linyphia? with a silky-grey abdomen and yellow stripes behind its black feet had spun really strong webs. This is particularly so with the latter. Their young appear to stay close by or at least to live there temporarily, inhabiting the irregular forewebs. This is the first example of maternal care among spiders. Several distinctive types of caterpillar were found: the green red-tubercled Bombyx caterpillar, as well as a grey yellow-saddled, eight-tubercled Bombyx, a brown caterpillar with a slight saddle at the tail end, hairy caterpillars with two blackish tufts of hair, and a chrysalis, which has now changed into a wingless lepidopteran. Two green mantis, several small Acridium, and a small cricket. I mention here that one of the phasmids had caught a fly and was on the point of consuming it. These insects do not live exclusively on vegetable matter. On a pond, around which several dragon-flies were flying, I found some very interesting little plants: a composite, an umbellifer which seems to be a Hydrocotyle, and two species of Juncus. Some hemiptera were found in the moist sand. A myrtle plant with hairy fruit was common. The violet was also found, as well as Melaleuca, but it was rare. The new plant growth from spikelets of the Festuca can also be observed here. A plant, whose red flowers grow directly from the branches. Solanum nigrum seems to have been introduced.

19 September 1842 [around Sydney]

Yesterday I paid nature a very long visit and we were both alone with each other like the time I was making excursions to Paris and Naples, and going on walking trips from Rome to Florence or through Switzerland. The day was unusually mild: the mountains enveloped by a bluish-white glimmer, which became more intensely blue upwards and whiter downwards. I have rarely seen really blue distances out here, but during the setting of the sun, often when it is half an hour above the horizon, it floods the hills with delightful soft purple light just as it always hovered around the mountains of Italy.

I noted down for myself what I found, and I shall copy out these notes here:

Lead and sulphur in the sandstone, which is being quarried close to the jail. Round inclusions of grey clay and distinct imprints of shells ... They are in a block in the sentry-box next to the jail. They are the first traces of fossils, which I have observed in the sandstone.

Grevillea dubia? The leaves are very broad compared with those of other species and the edges are not curled [?]. An Oreodicus with pieces of plants arranged parallel in a sort of spiral.

A small grey Rhynchophorus with a whitish line on each side. A yellow wasp was looking for a night cap among the dewy leaves of Banksia ericaefolia.

Lambertia is now beginning to develop young shoots; likewise Hakea and perhaps all the Proteaceae one after the other. Those just mentioned are the first two I noticed. They do not appear to have very much sap pressure throughout the winter. Isopogon anethifolium is in beautiful bloom; likewise Conospermum tenuifolium, taxifolium, and linearifolium (a variety of longifolium?), Baeckea densifolia.

It is interesting to observe the distribution of the dew on the leaves and petals of Philotheca australis (scabra): while there are large drops on each side of the petals, the leaves of the stem are quite dry already. Is this in any way connected with the distribution of the glands containing volatile oils? – I observed the plant at 9 a.m.

A small spider, apparently belonging to the Lycoseae (?), on the under side of a leaf of Angophora cordata/-ifolia, beneath some loose cobwebs.

Hakea gibbosa exudes a tasteless, yellowish-white gum.

On Casuarina stricta a black hymenopteran, covered with...