Part 2 (1/2)

Ascend a len and more mountains

Hot winds, smoke and ashes

The personnel of my first expedition into the interior consisted in the first instance ofblack boy I intended to engage the services of another white man at the furthest outpost that I could secure one Frousta I despatched the bulk of ress up the overland road via Beltana, the Finniss and Strangways Springs stations Our stores reached the Peake station before us This station was originally called Mount Margaret, but subsequently res near the south bank of the Peake Creek; it was a cattle station formed by Mr Phillip Levi of Adelaide The character of the country is an open stony plateau, upon which lines of hills or ranges rise; it is intersected by nu to Lake Eyre, and was an excellent cattle run The South Australian Governraph station in the immediate vicinity of the cattle station When the cattle station was first formed in 1862 the natives were very numerous and very hostile, but at the time of my visit, ten years later, they were comparatively civilised At the Peake ere enabled to re-shoe all our horses, for the stony road up frousta had worn out all that were put on there I also had an extra set fitted for each horse, rolled up in calico, andto his account, could do everything, and had been everywhere, who knew the country I was about to explore perfectly well, and who had frequently met and camped with blacks froo over there in a feeeks He died at one of the telegraph stations a year or two after he lefthorses I am able to do these useful works ht little spring cart with me all the way from Melbourne to the Peake, which I sold here, and my means of transit froed sojourn at the Peake, where I received great hospitality froot, the owners, and Mr Conway, the er, we departed for the Charlotte

My little black boy dick, or, as he used generally to write, and call himself, Richard Giles Kew, 1872, had been at school at Kew, near Melbourne He came to me from Queensland; he had visited Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney, and had been with me for nearly three years, but his fears of wild natives were terribly excited by what nearly everybody we , as it was usually so feller, just you look out when you get OUTSIDE! the wild blacks will [adjective] soon cook you They'll kill YOU first, you know--they WILL like to cut out your kidney fat! They'll sneak on yer when yer goes out after the horses, they'll have yer and eat yer” This being the burden of the strain continually dinned into the boy's ears, ot away fro the Peake, as ere ca south, the saain, he at last o back with one of the teamsters; he had hinted about this before, and both Carmichael and Robinson seemed to be aware of his intention Force was useless to detain hiument was lost on hi we parted I shall ain by-and-bye He was a sent, but childish boy, and was frequently mistaken for a half-caste; he was a splendid rider and tracker, and knew alreat wit, as one re up the country after he had been at school, we once saw sounyahs, and he said toto theone to his watering place for the season p'r'aps” At another ti at a place called Crowlands, he askedto a crow on a tree, ”Why, there's the crow,” and staround, ”there's the land;” he immediately said, ”Oh, now I knohyto our Queen” I said, ”Certainly it is;” then he said, ”Well, ain't it funny? I never knew that before” In Melbourne, one day, ere leaning out of aoverlooking the people continually passing by dick said, ”What for,--white felloalk about--walk about in tohen he always rides in the bush?” I said, ”Oh, to do their business”

”Business,” he asked, ”what's that?” I said, ”Why, to get money, to be sure” ”Money,” he said; ”white fellow can't pick up money in the street”

From the Peake we had only pack-horses and one little Scotch terrier dog dick left us at Hann's Creek, thirty miles from the Peake On our road up, about halfway between the Peake and the Charlotte, we crossed and cae creek which runs into the Finke, called the Alberga Here we h, but ere known to be great thieves, having stolen things from several bullock drays, and committed other robberies; so we had to keep a sharp look out upon theso of ”Jim Crow,” and he performed the ”turn about and wheel about and do just so” part of it until he got giddy, or pretended to be; and to get rid of hiave them some flour and a smoke of tobacco, and they departed

We arrived at the Charlotte Waters station on the 4th of August, 1872; this was actually my last outpost of civilisation My companion, Mr

Carmichael, and I were e of this depot, and by Mr Chandler, a gentleraph station farther up the line In consequence of their kindness, our stay was lengthened to a week My horses were all the better for the short respite, for they were by nobeen visited by rains, grass was abundant, and the ani The party consisted only of myself, Carmichael, and Robinson; I could not now obtain another inal nu our stay at the Charlotte I inquired of a nuion beyond, to the west and north-west They often used the words ”Larapinta and plenty black fellow” Of the country to the west they seeet positive statee waters, high mountains, and plenty, plenty, wild black fellow; they said the wild blacks were very big and fat, and had hair growing, as some said, all down their backs; while others asserted that the hair grew all over their bodies, and that they eat pickaninnies, and sometimes came eastward and killed any of the members of the Charlotte tribe that they could find, and carried off all the women they could catch On the 12th we departed, andCharaph road as far as the crossing place of the above-named watercourse, which was sixty miles by the road

(ILlustRATION: CHAMBERS' PILLAR)

In the evening of the day we encae of Mr McMinn, surveyor, and accompanied by Mr Harley Bacon, a son of Lady Charlotte Bacon, arrived from the north, and we had their coe tributary joins the Finke near the foot of Mount Hu day Mr McMinn, Mr Bacon, and I rode up its channel, and at about twelve miles we found a water-hole and returned The country consisted chiefly of open sandhills well grassed I usta, northwards and north-ards, the whole region consists of an open stony plateau, upon which h and from these, a number of watercourses run, and, on a section of this plateau, nearly 200 s exist This formation, , the Finke, and then a forins Next day our friends departed for the Charlotte, afterme several presents From Mr

McMinn I obtained the course and distance of the pillar froiven, we crossed the Finke three times, as it wound about so snake-like across the country On the 22nd we enca the pillar in full view

(ILlustRATION: THE Moloch horridus)

The appearance of this feature I should iine to be unique For a detailed account of itthe pillar from the south, the traveller must pass over a series of red sandhills, covered with soround with that aboetable production, the so-called spinifex or porcupine grass--botanically, the Triodia, or Festuca irritans The tia, a very hard acacia, though a few tall and well-grown casuarinas--of a kind that is new to me, namely the C

Decaisneana--are occasionally met (These trees have ale ions) On our route Mr Carht to me a most peculiar little lizard, a true native of the soil; its colour was a yellowish-green; it was armed, or orna its back, sides, and legs; these were curved, and almost sharp; on the back of its neck was a thick knotty lump, with a spine at each side, by which I lifted it; its tail was arth to its body The lizard was about eight inches in length Naturalists have christened this harmless little chameleon the Moloch horridus I put the little creature in a pouch, and intended to preserve it, but it ain to its native sand I had one of these lizards, as a pet, for months in Melbourne It was finally trodden on and died It used to eat sugar

By this ti Upon reaching it, I found it to be a coluhty feet high, and coe blocks lying about in all directions From the centre of the pedestal rises the pillar, composed also of the same kind of rock; at its top, and for twenty to thirty feet from its summit, the colour of the stone is red The coluhty feet above the pedestal It is split at the top into two points There it stands, a vast ical periods that e, of which it was formerly a part, ashed by the action of old Ocean's waves into mere sandhills at its feet The stone is so friable that names can be cut in it to almost any depth with a pocket-knife: so loose, indeed, is it, that one al at its base In a small orifice or chamber of the pillar I discovered an opossum asleep, the first I had seen in this part of the country We turned our backs upon this peculiar randeur--”clothed in white sandstone, mystic, wonderful!”

From hence we travelled nearly west, and in seventeen h sandhills, at whose feet the river swept We followed round them to a convenient spot, and one where our horses could water without bogging The bed of the Finke is the y creek-channel I have everto the pillar, and cahteen beyond it, it was late in the afternoon e encamped The country we passed over was rass Where we struck the channel there was a long hole of brine There was plenty of good grass on the river flat; and we got soood water where we fixed our caht descended upon us, in this our first bivouac in the unknown interior

By observations of the bright stars Vega and Altair, I found ht was excessively cold, and by daylight next rees Our blankets and packs were covered with a thick coating of ice; and tea left in our pannikins overnight had beco soft and sandy, we unshod all the horses and carried the shoes So far as I could discern with the glasses, the river channel cao north-west, as I was sure it would turnbend, and having to turn back many y crossing To the south a line of hills appeared, where the natives were burning the spinifex in all directions These hills had the appearance of red sandstone; and they had a series of ancient ocean water their northern face, traceable for ht approached, we could see, to the north, the brilliant flarass fires, which had only recently been started by so aware of our presence in their doht so around our careat perturbation for several hours We kept awake, listening for soive us an idea of the intruders; and being sure that we heard the tones of hu barked still more furiously, but the sounds departed: we heard theht passed in silence--in silence and beautiful rest

We had not yet even sighted the Finke, upon my north-west course; but I deter suddenly upon it under the foot of high sandhills Its course noas a good deal to the north The horses being heavily packed, and the spinifex distressing them so much, we found a convenient spot where the ani, and ca casuarinas; they grow to a height of twenty to twenty-five feet of barrel without a branch, and then spread out to a fine ue sheet of water at the camp had wild ducks on it: soreeable, with cool breezes from the north-west A tributary joins the Finke here froh dark hill forms its southern embankment: the western horizon is bounded by broken lines of hills, of no great elevation As we ascend the river, the country gradually rises, and we are here about 250 feet above the level of the Charlotte Waters Station

Finding the river now trended not only northerly, but even east of north, we had to go in that direction, passing over soht angles Although the country was quite open, it was ied with rows of splendid guh sandhills I was very reluctant to cross, on account of the frightfully boggy bed of the creek, but, rather than travel several ot over, certainly, but to see one's horses and loads sinking bodily in a ht, and it was only by urging the ani, that we accoot the worst of it, as the bed was so fearfully ploughed up by the pack-horses ahead of them The whole bed of this peculiar creek appears to be a quicksand, and when I say it was nearly a quarter of a mile wide, its forhtly brackish water was trickling down the bed in a much narrower channel, however, than its whole width; and where the water appears upon the surface, there the bog is most to be apprehended Sometimes it runs under one bank, soain, at other places the water occupies the mid-channel A horse may walk upon apparently fir, horse and rider ulfed in quicksand; but in other places, where it is firive so the river ona continuous range of hills to the north, which ran east and west, and with the glasses I could see the river trending towards theed htso successfully crossed in the ain We descended to the bank, and after great trouble found a spot firh to allow all the horses to stand upon it at one time, but we could not find a place where they could cli reach of water, and a quag for -horses were badly bogged in trying to find a get-away: finally, we had to cut boughs and sticks, and bridge the place over with theot the horses over one by one without accident or loss In four ain, but had no occasion to recross, as it was not in our road This day, having wasted so s, we travelled only fifteen miles The horizon from this camp was bounded froes; which I was not sorry to perceive Those to the west, and south-west, were the highest and most pointed It appears that the Finke h some of those to the north-west To-day I observed a eon, quite new to me; it was of a dark-brown colour, h top-knot It is considerably seon of his Central Australian expedition

It was now the 28th of August, and the te now again about north-west, we reached a peculiar pointed hill with the Finke at its foot We passed over the usual red sandhill country covered with the porcupine grass, characteristic of the Finke country, and saw a shallow sheet of yellow rain water in a large clay pan, which is quite an unusual feature in this part of the world, clay being so conspicuous by its absence The hill, e reached it, assuh and precipitous to cliree of pleasure I named it Christopher's Pinnacle, after a nae For sorass, but here we caust of our horses We had now a line of hills on our right, with the river on our left hand, and in six or seven e, and could see to the north and north-west another, and e, but extending to the west as far as I could see The country hereabouts has been nearly all burnt by the natives, and the horses endeavour to pick roads where the dreaded triodia has been destroyed

We passed a few clumps of casuarinas and a few stunted trees with broad, poplar-like leaves Travelling for twelvenearly north and south

Here the river had a stony bed with a fine reach of water in it; so to-night at least our anxiety as regards the horses bogging is at an end The streareeable sound, such as I have not heard for h the green leaflets, giddy with joyousness, dances along”

Soon after we had unpacked and let go our horses, ere accosted by a native on the opposite side of the creek Our little dog became furious; then two natives appeared We nally failed, for neither of us knewThe only bit of information I obtained from them was their na to it and repeating the word Larapinta This word, a the Peake and Charlotte natives, s of this peculiar and only Central Australian river, no doubt the name is derived I shot a hawk for thereeable cool breezes; the sky has become rather overcast; the flies are very numerous and troublesoht fall of rain before long

A few drops of rain fell during the night, which h nothere was sultriness in the air though the sky was clear; the therrees, and at sunrise a s up the horses this ainwith thereased, and red-ochred, in, as they doubtless thought, themanner I had just et some more information from the warrior as to the course of the creek, etc, but when they saw the horse approaching they scampered off, and the bedizened warrior projected himself into the friendly branches of the nearest tree with thethat it was useless to try to approach the the the river easily over its stony bed, we continued north-west towards a es that traversed the horizon in that direction The river appeared to come from the same spot A breeze from the north-west caused the dust raised by the pack-horses, which we drove in aupon the loose soil where the spinifex had all been lately burnt, to blow directly in our faces At five reat volu in all directions The natives find it easier to catch gaetation, than when it is clothed with thick coarse grasses or pungent shrubs A tributary from the north, or east of north, joined the Finke on this course, but it was destitute of water at the junction Soon now the river swept round to the ard, along the foot of the hills ere approaching Here a tributary fro along its bed It was exceedingly boggy, and we had to pass up along it for over two miles before we could find a place to cross to enable us to reach the main stream, now to the north of us I called this McMinn's Creek

On reaching the Finke we enca I ascended a h, stony, and precipitous, and composed of red sandstone; its suetation upon it than huge plots of triodia, of the reen, and set with the most formidable spines Whenever one moves, these spines enter the clothes in all directions,them From here I could see that the Finke turned up towards these hills through a glen, in a north-westerly direction Other mountains appeared to the north and north-west; indeed this seeth and breadth To the eastwards it raph line, and to the west as far as the eye could see The sun had gone down before I had finished taking bearings Our road to-len from which the river issues All day a , and clouds of smoke and ashes frohed up by the horses in front of us, and blowing in our faces, reeable days I ever passed At night, however, a contrast obtained--the wind dropped, and a calht succeeded to the hot, save len, as 24 degrees 25' 12”; and, though the day had been so hot and disagreeable, the night proved cold and chilly, the therht, but there was no frost, or even any dew to freeze

CHAPTER 12 FROM 30TH AUGUST TO 6TH SEPTEMBER, 1872

(ILlustRATION: VIEW IN THE GLEN OF PALMS)

Milk thistle

In the glen

A serpentine and rocky road