Part 4 (1/2)

In consequence of the windings of the creeks, we travelled upon all points of the compass, but our main course was a little west of north-west The day arh, and e camped we felt the benefit of what shade the creek timber could afford Some of the small vetch, or pea-like plant, of which the horses are so fond, existed here To-daya single quandong tree (Fusanus; one of the sandal woods, but not of co, but the fruit not yet ripe I also saw a pretty drooping acacia, whose leaves hung in sant and pendulous appearance This tree grows to a height of fifty feet; and soh in the barrel

The flies to-day were exceedingly troubleso te continually hunted by the natives, they were too shy to allow us to get within shot of them Some emu steaks would come in very handy now Near our pool of slie tree (Capparis), of a very poor and stunted habit, grew; and we allowed it to keep on growing

The stars inforht, that I was alrees 29' The horses fed well on the purple vetch, their bellsThe sound of the aniht, is really musical to the explorer's ear I called the creek after Mr

Carood water lower down, decided to follow it, as it trended to the west We found, however, in a few miles, it went considerably to the south of west, when it eventually turned up again to the north-west

We still had the ht, or north of us: and now, to the south, another line of low hills trended up towards theap between the two lines of ranges, about twenty-fivethe banks of Carrass, and not much triodia; but to the south, the latter and mallee scrub approached somewhat near We saw several s, but none of any size In seven or eight miles it split into several channels, and eventually exhausted itself upon an open grassy swareen I found some rain water, in clay pans, upon it A clay pan is a sround, whose top soil has been washed or bloay, leaving the hard clay exposed; and upon this surface, one, two, three, or (scarcely) more inches of rain water er it reets, until at last it dries in cakes which shi+ne like tiles; these at length crumble away, and the clay pan is swept by winds clean and ready for the next shower In the course of tied and deepened They are very seldoe here were excellent There were nuaroos and emus on the plain, but they preferred to leave us in undisturbed possession of it There wereplaces about here; and no doubt the natives look upon this little circle as one of their happy hunting grounds To-day I noticed a tree in the reeable and fertile little spot I had seen, we did not shi+ft the camp, as the horses were in clover Our little plain is bounded on the north by peculiar ed with scrub nearly all round The appearance of the northern rotesque, and very difficult to describe There appear to be still three distinct lines One ends in a bluff, to the east-north-east of the camp; another line ends in a bluff to the north-north-east; while the third continues along the northern horizon One point, higher than the rest in that line, bears north 26 degrees west fro; it recedes in the distance eastwards, in al itself a bluff, and all overlooking a valley The bluffs have a circular curve, are of a red colour, and in perspective appear like a gigantic flat stairway, only that they have an oblique tendency to the southward, caused, I presureatly distant geological period, must have swept over them froh peak in the northern line; and Mr Carmichael and I decided to walk over to, and ascend it It was apparently no ht miles away

As h an ies, now some seventy-five miles behind us, and in that distance not a break had occurred in the line whereby I could either get over or through it, to ain; indeed, at this distance it was doubtful whether it orth while to endeavour to do so, as one can never tell what change est of Australian strea a valley under the foot of the highest of three tiers of hills, and co from the west; but whether its sources are in those hills, or that it still runs on somewhere to the north of us, is the question which I now hope to solve I am the more anxious to rediscover the Finke, if it still exists, because water has been by nowhich I have lately been travelling; and I believe a better country exists upon the other side of the , Car encarassed, and had good soil, and it would aroo hunt We saw nuet no shots at them In three miles the plain ended in thick, indeed very dense, scrub, which continued to the foot of the hills; in it the grass was long, dry, and tangled with dead and dry burnt sticks and tih Reaching the foot of the hills, I found the natives had recently burnt all the vegetation fro the stones, of which it was co distance to the top of the first ridge, but the incline was easy, and I was in great hopes, if it continued so, to be able to get the horses over theat the top of the slope, I was, however, undeceived upon that score, for we found the high , co chasm, which lay, under an alh irt around by a solid wall of rock, fifty or sixty feet in height, froe of which the summit rose It was quite unapproachable, except, perhaps, in one place, round to the northward

The solid rock of which it had forhty force of nature, been split into innuments, both perpendicularly and horizontally, and was almost mathematically divided into pieces or squares, or unequal cubes, simply placed upon one another, like masons' ithout e, the upper tapered to pieces not er than a brick, at least they seeular rand and awful, and I could not but reflect upon the ti in the convulsive trehty volcanic shock, which shi+vered thements I then beheld I said the hill we had ascended ended abruptly in a precipice; by going farther round we found a spot, which, though practicable, was difficult enough to descend At the bottom of some of the ravines below I could see several sullies

The afternoon had been war had ht of water made us all the more so It was now nearly sundown, and it would be useless to attempt the ascent of the mountain, as by the time we could reach its summit, the sun would be far below the horizon, and we should obtain no view at all

It was, however, evident that no gap or pass existed by which I could get my horses up, even if the country beyond were ever so pro A few of the cypress or Australian pines (Callitris) dotted the surew on the sides of some of the ravines below us We had, at least I had, considerable difficulty in descending the alot there before I did, and had tis in a fine little rock hole full of pure water, filled, I suppose, by the late rains The water, indeed, had not yet ceased to run, for it was trickling fro what delayed , I replied: ”Ah, it is all very easy for you; you have two circu, and therefore able to climb, and besides, you are in the tropic” To which he very naturally replies, ”If I anly answer, ”No, you are in the tropic cliround no view of any kind, except along the mountains for a reatly disappointed at having such a toilsome walk for so little purpose We returned by athe cahly tired out with our walk I narave It is nearly 1700 feet above the level of the surrounding country, and over 3000 feet above the sea The next day Mr Cararoos, and in the way of birds there were eeons; but all we got fro somewhat refreshed by our stay here, we proceeded across the little plain towards another high bluff hill, which loo country to the west-north-west Flies were troublesoht, and im first the racecourse plain, we then entered soa is an acacia, the wood extreht of twenty to thirty feet, but is by no es over an enormous extent of Australia The scrubentered had been recently burnt near the edge of the plain; but the further we got into it, the worse it became At seven miles we cauenerally in thick cluether rows about twenty feet high The higher grade of eucalypts or guood soil, and nearly always line the banks of watercourses The eucalypts of the hts, but contain water in their roots which only the native inhabitants of the country can discover A whitearound trying to get the water he ht knoas preserved by the tree, but not for hi to a h the one, will suddenly o perhaps ten or twelve feet away, and begin to dig In a foot or so he co round, till he comes to the foot of the tree; he then breaks it off, and has a root perhaps fifteen feet long--this, by the way, is an extre, ties them into bundles, and stands them up on end in a receptacle, when they drain out a quantity of beautifully sweet, pure water A very long root such as I have ive nearly a bucketful of water; but woe to the white et water out of mallee There are a few other trees of different kinds that water is also got froa, acacia trees, and froion they are in, as to what trees give the inal art at any time or place to find it

The mallee we found so dense that not a third of the horses could be seen together, and with great difficulty weunder the foot of the high bluff before mentioned--there a sh our journey to-day was only twelve h such horrible scrubs took us many hours From the top of the piny hill I could see a watercourse to the south two or three miles away; it is probably Car on the plain behind; Carmichael found a little water-hole up this channel, with barely sufficient water for our use The day had been disagreeably warm I rode over to the creek to the south, and found two small puddles in its bed; but there was evidently plenty of water to be got by digging, as by scratching with my hands I soon obtained some The camp which Carmichael and Robinson had selected, while I rode over to the other creek, was a most wretched place, in the midst of dense mallee and amidst thick plots of triodia, which we had to cut away before we could sit down

The only direction in which we could see a yard ahead of us was up towards the sky; and as ere not going that way, it gave us no idea of our next line of route The big bluff we had been steering for all day was, I may say, included in our skyward view, for it towered above us al ahen the camp was selected, I was sorry to hear that the horses had all been let go without hobbles; as they had been in such fine quarters for three nights at the last camp on the plain, it was h the scrub to it in the night The followingnot a horse was to be found! Robinson and I went in search of theot three, and at night Robinson returned with only six, the remainder had been rees in the shade, and there was a ind blowing Robinson had a fine day's work, as he had to walk back to the caot In the afternoon I atte the ca, and reached the summit of one hill of some elevation, 1300 feet, and then found that a vast chasm, or ravine, separated me from the main mountain chain It would be dark before I could--if I could--reach the suet no view, so I returned to the caht was considerable, as o, as it towered above the hill I was upon, and was 500 or 600 feet higher These ranite; very little timber existed upon the, coarse spinifex I slipped down a gully, fell into a hideous bunch of this horrid stuff, and got pricked fro off in reat annoyance and pain for rew on the hillsides, in gullies and ravines; of these I collected several We secured what horses we had, for the night, which ar Robinson and I rode after the stillones; at the plain camp we found all except one, and by the ti the horses in general, we had so a pair of hobbles for each, and not being able to do so, I left one in the mob without This base reptile surreptitiously crawled away in the night by hi-hole it was possible for a et into, in the e stones, I deter for the nooanimals The water was completely exhausted We moved away south-westerly for about three o; noe had to dig a big hole with a shovel, and with a good deal of labour we obtained a sufficient supply for a few days

CHAPTER 14 FROM 17TH SEPTEMBER TO 1ST OCTOBER, 1872

Search for thesand

Last horse recovered

Annoyed by flies

Mountains to the west

Fine tie

Mount Solitary

Follow the creek

Dig a tank

Character of the country

Thunderstorion

Sandhills

Useless rain

A bare granite hill

No water

Equinoctial gales

Search for water

Find a rock reservoir

Native fig-trees

Gloomy and desolate view

The old chain

Hills surrounded by scrubs

More hills to the west