Part 5 (1/2)

Corkwood trees

Ants' nests

Gloorms

Native poplar trees

Peculiar clium-trees

A mare foals

Depart for the south

Re fixed our camp at a new place, in the afternoon of the 17th Septeain went to look after the horses At three ot the tracks of one horse and saw that he had been about there for a day or two, as the tracks were that age We ain, much fresher, and came upon the horse about seven miles from the carees, sky overcast, rain iht of the 18th of September a few heat-drops of rain fell I sent Robinson away to the plain ca sure he would find the rover there A hot wind blew all day, the sand was flying about in all directions Robinson got the horse at last at the plain, and I took special care to find a pair of hobbles for hiht at all events The flies were an intolerable nuisance, not that they were extraordinarily numerous, but so insufferably pertinacious

I think the tropic fly of Australia the most abominable insect of its kind From the summit of the hill I ascended on Sunday, I found the line of mountains still ran on to the west, the furthest hills appeared fifty miles away As they extend so far, and are the principal features in sight, I shall follow the some creek, or river, that may carry h hills as I have been following should send out no creek whose course extends farther than ten or twelve miles I could trace the creek I am now on by its ti south of west The country in its ihbourhood is open, and ti, and the triodia approaches to within a quarter of a mile of it The line of hills I previouslyto the south of us, we had now run out I nae, after a friend of Mr Carmichael's There is, however, one small isolated hill, the furthest outpost of that line, some three miles away to the south-west; the creek may probably take a bend doards it I called it Mount Solitary This creek is rather well ti, and there is soh the surface water has all disappeared

There was so little water at the camp tank, we had to send the horses up the creek three miles to water, and on their return I was not sorry to be ain, for our stay at these two last camps had been compulsory, and the anxiety, trouble, and annoyance we had, left no very agreeable reminiscences of the locality in ouroff the bends, but without seeing any signs of water: towards evening we set to work to try if we could get any by digging In about four feet, water began to drain in, but, the sand being so loose, we had to remove an enormous quantity to enable a horse to drink Soo into it, and had to be watered with a canvas bucket The supply seeood, but it only drained in from the sides Every time a horse drank we had to clear out the sand for the next; it therefore took until late before all were satisfied The country was still open, and timbered with fine black oak, or what is so called in Australia It is a species of casuarina, of the same faned suprerass had been burnt, and fresh young green shoots appeared in its place; this was very good for the horses A few drops of rain fell; distant ru now cooled the air While ere at breakfast the next , a thunderstorm came up to us fro us, though we could see the rain falling heavily a few yards to the south We packed up and went off, hoping to find a better watered region at the hills ards There was an extraordinary mount a little to the west of north fro like a church; it was over twentythe creek on our left, to run itself out into some lonely flat or dismal swamp, known only to the wretched inhabitants of this desolate region--over which there seems to brood an unutterable stillness and a dread repose--we struck into sandhill country, rather open, covered with the triodia or spinifex, and timbered with the casuarina or black oak trees We had scarcely gone two miles when our old thunderstorm came upon us--it had evidently missed us at first, and had now come to look for us--and it rained heavily The country was so sandy and porous that no water remained on the surface We travelled on and the stor up every drop that fell Continuing our course, which was north 67 degrees west, we travelled twenty-five ht of thefor, but they were too distant to reach before night, so, turning a little northward to the foot of a low, bare, white granite hill, I hoped to find a creek, or at least soet soh we had been travelling in the rain all day and accoed to caood feed for the horses, and, as it was still raining, they could not be very greatly in want of water We fixed up our tent and retired for the night, the wind blowing furiously, as ht reasonably be expected, for it was the eve of the vernal equinox, and this I supposed was our share of the equinoctial gales We were co to remove the camp, as we had not a drop of water, and unless it descended in sheets the country could not hold it, being all pure red sand The hill near us had no rocky ledges to catch water, so weyesterday Their nearest or most eastern point was not more than four miles away, and ent first to it I walked on ahead of the horses with the shovel, to a s so in it I walked up it, to and over rocky ledges, dohich at ti torrents roar Very little of yesterday's rain had fallen here; but most fortunately I found one small rock reservoir, with just sufficient water for all the horses There was none either above or below in any other basin, and there wereplaces, but all were dry The water in this oneaffected it in the least The place at which I found the water was the most difficult for horses to reach; it was alh aardly situated supply, I cli-tree in full bearing; the fruit was ripe and delicious It is the size of an ordinaryred, then black: it is full of s the horses, several hundred feet belowdirection And I had to descend before I had tiave inable; one, al any farther into such a dreadful region To the eastward, I found I had now long outrun the old main chain of mountains, which had turned up to the north, or rather north-north-ard; between me and it a mass of jumbled and broken mounts appeared; each separate one, however, was almost surrounded by scrubs, which ran up to the foot of the hill I was upon

Northward the vieas similar To the west the picture was the sae loo scrubs--the hills furthest away in that direction being probably fifty loomy--I could see no creeks of any kind, the ullies, and not existing at all at aour horses proved a difficult and tedious task; as many of them would not approach the rocky basin, the water had to be carried up to them in canvas buckets By the time they were all watered, and we had descended froully, the day had passed with most miraculous celerity The horses did not finish the water, there being nearly sufficient to give theood here, as a little flat, on which grew some yellow immortelles, had recently been burnt I allowed the horses to remain and drink up the balance of the water, while I went away to inspect soullies in the hills to the west of us, and see whether any more water could be found The day was cool and fine

I climbed to the summit of a hill about 800 feet from its base The vieas similar to yesterday's, except that I could now see these hills ran on west for twelve or fifteen miles, where the country was entirely covered with scrubs Little gullies, with an odd, and stunted, guullies were more than six feet wide, and the trumpery little streams that descend, in even their most flooded state, would be of but little service to anybody I had wandered up and down hills, in and out of gullies, all the le drop of water, and was returning disappointed to the ca one ully which I hadout, I was fortunate enough to discover a few small rocky holes full of the purest fluid This treasure was sreat; for what pleased e fact that the water was trickling from one basin to another, but with the weakest possible flow Above and belohere I found this water the gully and the rocks were as dry as the desert around Had the supply not been kept up by the trickling, half ht

The approach to this water orse, rougher, rockier, and more ihted to have found it, otherwise I should have had to retreat to the last creek I determined, however, not to touch it now, but to keep it as a reserve fund, should I be unable to find ave the horses all the water re, and left the spot perfectly dry

We now had the line of hills on our right, and travelled nearly west-north-west Close to the foot of the hills the country is open, but covered with large stones, between the interstices of which grow huge bunches of the hideous spinifex, which both we and the horses dread like a pestilence We have encountered this scourge for over 200 miles All around the coronets ofso continually punctured with the spines of this terrible grass, it has caused a swelling, or tough enlarge the-bones Many of the; they are also very tender-footed froround, as we have lately had to pass over Bordering upon the open stony triodia ground above-h there are various other trees, shrubs, and plants ast it It is so dense and thick that in it we cannot see a third of the horses at once; they, of course, continually endeavour to enerally speaking, the pungent triodia and the etable kingdoenerally soft, and on that account also the horses seek it Out of kindness, I have occasionally allowed them to travel in the scrubs, when our direct course should have been on the open, until so so dense, the horses are cos of their loads, and frequently forcing sticks in between their backs or sides and their saddles, so theh the scrubs, and the sounds of the pounding of horse-hoofs are the first notice we receive that some calamity has occurred So soon as we ourselves can force our way through, and collect the horses the best e can, yelling and howling to one another to say howThen they have to be tracked; portions of loads are picked up here and there, and, in the course of an hour or more, the horse or horses are found, repacked, and on we push again, round, where at least we can see what is going on These scrubs are really dreadful, and one's skin and clothes get torn and ripped in all directions One of these mishaps occurred to-day

In these scrubs arerat (Mus conditor) They forht of four feet, the circuths up to three feet, and up to an inch in diaround underneath are tunnels, which are carried to some distance from their citadel They occur in many parts of Australia, and are occasionally eneral rule, they frequent the country inhabited by the black oak (casuarina) They can live without water, but, at times, build so near a watercourse as to have their structures swept away by floods Their flesh is very good eating

In ten ullies, and reached the foot of other hills, where a few Australian pines were scattered here and there These hills have a glistening, sheening, laminated appearance, caused by the vast quantities of mica which abounds in theated, and their upper portions almost bare rock Time was lost here in unsuccessful searches for water, and we departed to another range, four or five her; therefore perhaps more likely to supply us ater Mr Care, and found it to be 900 feet froullies water there was none The view from the summit was just such as I have described before--an ocean of scrubs, with isolated hills or ranges appearing like islands in most directions Our horses had been already twenty-four hours without water I wanted to reach the far range to the west, but it was useless to push all the pack-horses farther into such an ocean of scrubs, as our rate of progress in them was so terribly slow I decided to return to the so e, which was yet some thirty miles away The country southward seemed to have been more recently visited by the natives than upon our line of march, which perhaps was not to be wondered at, as what could they get to live on out of such a region as we had got into? Probably forty or fifty es,the ascending smoke of spinifex fires, still attended to by the natives; and in the neighbourhood, no doubt, they had so places On our retreat we travelled round the northern face of the hills, upon whose south side we had arrived, in hopes of finding soht forht we could find none, and had to encamp without, either for ourselves or our horses

The following day seeh everythingby a natural law In the first place, while , while Carmichael and Robinson were away after the horses, the little piece of wood slipped out of h the top and nail of er and stuck in the end of my thumb The cut bled profusely, and it took its up It was late e left this waterless spot As there was a hill with a prepossessing gorge, I left Car the horses on, and rode off to see if I could find water there

Though I rode and walked in gullies and gorges, no water was to be found I then , and found so with their packs on, in a sround, surrounded by dense scrubs, which by chance I came to, and nobody near I called and waited, and at last Mr Carmichael came and told me that when he and Robinson debouched with the horses on this little open space, they found that two of the anione to pick up their tracks The horse carrying my papers and instruments was one of the truants Robinson soon returned, not having found the track Neither of them could tell when they saw the horses last I sent Mr Carmichael to another hill two or three miles away, that we had passed, but not inspected yesterday, to search for water, while Robinson and I looked for theour absence, we tied them up in two mobs Robinson tied his lot up near a s to the horses on the opposite side, without success We then went again in coly, but neither tracks nor horses could be found Five hours had now elapsed since I first heard of their absence I determined to make one more circuit beyond any we had already taken, so as to include the spot we had camped at; this occupied a couple of hours When I returned I was surprised to hear that Robinson had found the horses in a small but extra dense bunch of scrub not twenty yards from the spot where he had tied his horses up

While I ay he had gone on top of the little stony eminence close by, and froround below, and thus perceived the two anie to me that I could not find their tracks, but the reason was there were no tracks to find I took it for granted when Carmichael told me of their absence that they were absent, but he and Robinson were both , and I had been riding my horse at a fast pace the whole day; I was afraid we could not reach the reserve water by night But we pushed on, Mr Car found any water At dusk we reached the sully, up in whose rocks I had found the water on Sunday At a certain point the creek split in two, or rather two channels joined, and formed one, and I suppose the same ill fate that had pursued me all day made me mistake the proper channel, and we drove the unfortunate and li horses up a wretched, rocky, vile, scrubby, alully, where there was not a sup of water

On discovering my error, we had to turn them back over the same horrible places, all rocks, dense scrubs, and triodia, until we got them into the proper channel When near the first little hole I had formerly seen, I dis rieved to discover that the lowest and largest hole was nearly dry I bounded up the rocks to the next, and there, by the blessing of Providence, was still a sufficient quantity, as the slow trickling of the water froh its current had sadly diminished since my last visit only some seventy hours since

By this tiet the horses up the gully We had to get the to get levers and roll away huge boulders, tolike a track to enable the animals to reach the water

Tis, and in time the last animal's thirst was quenched, and the last drop of water sucked up from every basin I was afraid it would not be replenished by

We had to encamp in the midst of a thicket of a kind ofacacia with pink bark all in little curls, with a small and pretty mimosa-like leaf This bush is of the most tenacious nature--you may bend it, but break it won't We had to cut away sufficient to h for our packs, and to enable us to lie down, also to ree bunches of spinifex that occupied the space; then, when the stones were cleared ae had soht, and we slept, all heartily tired of our day's work, and the night being cool we could sleep in co was to see how the basins looked Mr Car to discover, and on his return reported that they had all been refilled in the night, and that the trickling continued, but less in volureat relief to my mind; I trust the water will rethefor more water, but without success, and I can only conclude that this water was permitted by Providence to remain here in this lonely spot for my especial benefit, for no more rain had fallen here than at any of the other hills in the neighbourhood, nor is this one any higher or different from the others which I visited, except that this one had a little water and all the rest none In gratitude therefore to this hill I have called it Mount Udor Mount Udor was the only spot where water was to be found in this aboion, and when I left it the udor had departed also I got two of -horses shod to-day, as the country I intended to travel over is about half stones and half scrub I have ully close to the foot of the rock where I found the water [EG/21], as this is my twenty-first camp from Charees 14', longitude 130 degrees 55', and variation 3 degrees east nearly I could not start to-day as the newly shod horses are so tender-footed that they seeo worse in their shoes; they may be better to-ully, and warrass here is very poor, and the horses wander a great deal to look for feed Four of theht thunderstor of rain for nearly an hour, but not sufficient fell to damp a pocket-handkerchief It was, however, quite sufficient to daood fall The flies are very nu es out west I went on our old tracks as far as they went, then I visited some other hills on my line of march As usual, the country alternated between open stones at the foot of the hills and dense scrubs beyond I thought one of the beds of scrubs I got into the densest I had ever seen, it was actually i one's way, and I had to turn around and about in all directions I had the greatest difficulty to get the horse I was leading to come on at all; I had no power over him whatever I could not use either a whip or a stick, and he dragged so much that he nearly pulled me out of , and it was extreht overtooktravelled nearly forty miles A few drops of rain fell; it may have benefited the horses, but to h, but had to wait for daylight before I could get the horses; they had wandered away for miles back towards the ca theht ot out of the scrubs At the foot of thethere was a little creek or gully, with some eucalypts where I struck it It was, as all the others had been, scrubby, rocky, and dry I left the horses and ascended to the top, about 900 feet above the scrubs which surrounded it The horizon was broken by low ranges nearly all round, but scrubs as usual intervened between theullies and rocky places, and I found some small holes and basins, but all were dry At this spot I was eighty miles from a sufficient supply of water; that at the caone by the tio any farther west It was now evening again I left these desolate hills, the Ehrenberg Ranges ofto find a better or less thick route through the scrubs, but it was just the saain overtook me in the direful scrubs, not very far froht; the most of the day asted in an ineffectual search for water

On Sundayhobbled h the scrubs were so thick, they were actually in sight at dawn; Iat once, I travelled to one or two hills we had passed by, but had not inspected before I could find no water anywhere It was late when I reached the caladdened to find the party still there, and that the water supply had held out so long On the following , Monday, the 30th of Septe had ceased in the upper holes, though it was still oozing into the lower ones, so that it was absolutely necessary to pack up and be off froet water for the camp, from the rock basins above The horses dreaded to approach it on account of their tender feet It required a lot of labour to get sufficient firewood to boil a quart pot, for, although ere camped in a dense thicket, the sreen, and useless for firewood

I intended to retreat fro to find the horses a shower of rain caht end in a heavier fall, I decided to reive the rain a chance,--especially as, aided by the slight rain, the horses could do without a drink, there now being only one drink reh we yet had the little holes full The rain fell in a slight and gentle shoo or three hours, but it left no trace of its fall, even upon the rocks, so that our water supply was not increased by one pint

To-ion such as this

But where shall I go next? The creek I had last got water in, ht even now be dry I determined to try and reach it farther down its channel If it existed beyond where I left it, I expected, in twenty-five to thirty ain: therefore, I decided to travel in that direction A few quandongs, or native peach trees, exist aullies; also a tree that I only know by the narandiflora,” Baron Mueller says, ”North-Western Australia; to the verge of the tropics; Indian Archipelago; called in Australia the corkwood tree; valuable for various utilitarian purposes The red-flowered variety is grandly orna pods as an exquisite spinach; the plant is shy of frost”) The wood is soft, and light in weight and colour It is by no h Generally two or three are huddled together, as though growing frorow in the little water channels

The ants here, as in nearly the whole of Tropical Australia, build nests froh--in some other parts I have known them twenty--to escape, I suppose, froions: the height also protects their eggs and stores fro, perhaps, accounts for the conspicuous absence of insects and reptiles One night, however, I certainly saorion in Australia--near Geelong, in Victoria

A tree called the native poplar (Codonocarpus cotinifolius) is also found growing in the scrubs and water-channels of this part of the country The cliion appears very peculiar Scarcely a week passes without thunderstorms and rain; but the latter falls in such small quantities that it is almost useless It is evidently on this account that there are no waters or watercourses deserving of the name I should like to kno much rain would have to fall here before any could be discovered lying on the ground All waters found in this part of the country ot out of pure sand, in a water channel or pure rock The native orange-tree grows here, but the specimens I have um-trees, which always enliven any landscape where they are found, also occur They are not, however, the etable structures which are known in Queensland and Western Australia, but are row near the watercourses

The 1st October broke bright and clear, and I was only too thankful to get out of this horrible region and this frightful encampment, into which the fates had drawn h water for all to drink; but one mare ay, and Robinson said she had foaled The foal was too young to walk orcondition for some time previously; so Robinson went back, killed the foal, and brought up the mare Now there was not sufficient water to satisfy her when she did come Mr Carmichael and I packed up the horses, while Robinson ay upon his unpleasant ht her up, the mare looked the picture of misery At last I turned ion; and ent away to the south It was half-past two o'clock e got clear froation to ion--I ht, at a word, condemn it as a useless desert I will, however, scarcely use so sweeping a term I can truly say it is dry, stony, scrubby, and barren, and this in my for creatures, but it is occasionally visited by its native owners, to whoe the possession of it Occasionally the howls of the native dog (Canis fao as he is usually called--were heard, and their footprints in sandy places seen A saroo, known as the scrub wallaby, were so at the roots of plants, upon which they exist; but the scrubs being so dense, and their et a shot at thereatest enele-hahich, though flying at an enorht, is always on the watch; but it is only when the wallaby lets itself out, on to the stony open, that the enele trusses it with his talons, smashes its head with its beak to quiet it, and, finally, if a female, flies aith the victi, or if a e its fill alone I have frequently seen these eagles swoop on to one, and, while struggling with its prey, have galloped up and secured it myself, before the dazed wallaby could collect its senses Other birds of prey, such as sparroks, owls, and ion, but they are not numerous Dull-coloured, small birds, that exist entirely without water, are found in the scrubs; and in the s they are sometimes noisy, but not melodious, when there is a likelihood of rain; and the sy, the diamond bird (A place Reptiles and insects, as I have said, are scarce, on account of the continual fires the natives use in their perpetual hunt for food

CHAPTER 15 FROM 1ST TO 15TH OCTOBER, 1872