Sofala reflections, pale moon rising/setting

Sofala reflections
Originally uploaded by JohnMerriman

Although not apparent at first, this tiny white ripple appeared in the corner of an otherwise fairly cluttered shot taken on an early morning walk along the Turon river - shooting reflections at 10 megapixels gave enough room to crop to about 10% of the original and there she was: pale phoebe, goddess of the moon. Called Hecate before she had risen and after she had set; as Astarte when crescent and Diana or Cynthia when in the open vault of heaven; as Phoebe when looked upon as sister of the sun (Phoebus) and Selene or Luna, the lover of the sleeping Endymion.

Beneath the surface is a river bed made famous in the 1851 gold rush for the rich alluvial gold it produced and the 10,000 miners who worked it, flecks and even small nuggets of which can still be found almost anywhere along its course.

The ancestors would have known exactly if the moon was rising or setting as well as its phase and worshiped accordingly; living as we do in cities and high rise and of course no longer revering her, except for the dedicated few; we are now mostly unaware of her activity.

Trout fishing in particular reawakens for me the awareness of the old natural cycles, fly casting quietly from the lake shore in the darkness, using the moon's reflection on the water to find the line on the surface and locate the ripples of a rising fish, observing the feeding activity periods that ebb and flow through the night as invertebrates react to lunar activity, changing position as the reflection path angles away, wiggling cold toes, lifting mud-stuck waders...see also the Bard

Charles Darwin at the Weatherboard Inn 1836

On 17th January 1836 Charles Darwin travelled over the Blue Mountains from Sydney to Bathurst and recorded:

"In the middle of the day we baited our horses at a little inn, called the Weatherboard, the country here is elevated 2,800 feet above the sea."

The inn itself dates from around 1830 and was among the first travellers' rest places to develop along the newly opened western road, first explored by Gregory Blaxland, William Charles Wentworth and William Lawson in May 1813, surveyed by George Evans and built by William Cox with his convict chain gang in 1815. It gave its name to the township of Weatherboard that grew up in the area which was later renamed Wentworth Falls after the explorer and nearby waterfall which Darwin also visited on the day.

The pipes, mug, china, decanter base and bottle base were among material excavated from the Weatherboard Inn site in 1985 and now held in the Blue Mountains City Library. This material was recently submitted for DNA residue analysis and the report has returned a positive match; the following reconstruction is based on these results and contemporary accounts.

Save the China!

Parlour of the Weatherboard Inn, 17 Jan 1836, luncheon 

   "Ah now, Mr Darwin sir, I'd be glad of another fill o' your navy twist for my pipe, so I would."

   "Have a care fellow, 'tis the finest Virginia leaf and the last of a gift from my dear friend Capt Fitzroy of our ship, Beagle, now berthed in Sydney Cove."
   "Well then 'tis a miser ye are sir and no mistake, so to hell with ye and take that! And that too!"
   "Lookout! Hold him! The madman has broken my pipe and mug and now means to brain me with the rum bottle, someone call for the landlady, for her best crystal decanter is lost."
   "Aye to the devil with ye then, and take your damn t'backy and your monkey notions too!"
   "Mister Darwin, sir, what have you done! That decanter was mother's and come all the way from home. And now you insult my guests with your unnatural philosophy. It is too much sir, now be off with you, before I call my husband."
   "No need for that madam, your victuals are poor and your wine worse, the bedbugs I need not mention. Now I must be off to view your waterfall and the whimpering rock nearby."

***

Weeping Rock above Wentworth Falls, author photo 

The signed portrait above is scanned from my copy of the fifth edition of "On the Origin of Species...", published on 10 February 1869, which incorporates a number of changes and for the first time included the phrase "survival of the fittest", which had been coined by the philosopher Herbert Spencer in his Principles of Biology (1864).