Part 16 (1/2)
It appeared to ue required punctuation, so I showed hied in a full stop The natives then retired fro spears through the tea-tree from the opposite side of the creek Here we had the back of our gunyah for a shi+eld, and could poke the h the interstices of the boughs We were coe our pieces at thee drove away the enemy, and soon after, Jimmy came with all the horses Gibson shot a wallaby, and we had fried chops for our Christmas dinner We drew from the medical department a bottle of rum to celebrate Christmas and victory We had an excellent dinner (for explorers), although we had eaten our Christ two days before We perhaps had no occasion to envy any one their Christrees in the shade
On this occasion Mr Tietkens, as als in a fine, deep, clear voice, and Gibson sang two or three love songs, not altogether badly; then it was Jis, but he would give us Toentlehwayman in the roave, and which pleased us most, because we couldn't quite understand it, was
”It was in sweet Limerick (er) citty That he left his mother dear; And in the Limerick (er) mountains, He co what a caroo was, Ji very desperate, and we considered ere perhaps upon a bit of a wild caroo ourselves
The flies had now becoue, especially to the horses, but most of all to the unfortunate that happens to be tied up
One horse, when he found he could not break away, threw himself down so often and so violently, and hurt hio, unless I had allowed him to kill hirape-like fruit on a light green bush of the sandal-wood kind, having one soft stone, was got here This fruit is black when ripe, and very good eating raw We tried theh the others liked them very much, I could not touch them The afternoons were most oppressive, and we had our usual earthquakes; one on the 28th causing aof tea-trees
For a few days I was taking a rest I was grieved to find that the water gradually ceased running earlier than formerly--that is to say, between eleven and twelve--the usual ti every little basin was refilled The phases of theto do with the water supply As the moon waxes, the power of the current wanes, and vice versa On the 1st January, 1874, the e of thethe only ti now every day After a hot and sultry night, on the 2nd, at about two o'clock, a fine thunder-shower froh it did not last very long, it quite replenished the water supply in the creek, and set it running again after it had left off work for the day This shower has quite reaniot three horses, and started off to reach the distant range, hoping now to find some water which would enable us to reach it For ten miles from the cans of it were visible anywhere On the 4th we found a clay-pan, having a clay-hole at one end with some mud in it, and which the natives had but just left, but no water; then another, where, as thunderstor out a clay tank While at work our clothes were dah rain fell to leave any on the ground It seemed evident I must pack out water from Fort Mueller, if ever I reached the new feature, as Nature evidently did not intend to assist, though it seemed monstrous to have to do so, while the sky was so densely overcast and black, and threatening thunderstorht over our heads, thousands of cubic acres of water which must fall somewhere I determined to wait a few days and see the upshot of all these threatenings To the east it was undoubtedly raining, though to the west the sky was beautifully clear
We returned to the native clay-pan, hoping rain ht have fallen, but it was drier than e left it The nextthe clear sky showed that all the rains had departed We deepened the native clay-hole, and then left for the depot, and found some water in a little hole about tena tank, and drained all the water into it; not having a pickaxe, we could not get down deep enough
From here I intended to pack so, another thunderstor us with a few drops to show its conte respectively north and south, apparently each dropping rain on the country they passed over
On reaching the camp, ere told that two nice showers had fallen, the strea With his usual intelligence, Jiun out fros by the barrel; of course, the ha the contents, buthis body by half an inch Had it been otherwise, we should have found him buried, and Gibson a lunatic and alone No natives had appeared while ere away; as I re away, so I hoped he would do the sa remarks to him, which it seehtcocky rushed furiously out of the tent, and began to bark at, and chase soht into the tent In the obscured , but it hite, and looked exactly like a large fat lamb It was, at all events, an innocent lamb to come near us, for as it sauntered away, I sent a revolver bullet after it, and it departed atuntil out of earshot
On the 7th Mr Tietkens and I again departed for the north That night we got wet through; there was plenty of water, but none that would re sure that the native clay-hole would now be full, we passed it on our left, and at our outhted to find that both it and the clay-pan near it were full We called this the Emu Tank We noent to the bare red hill with pines, previously ully I hope it will trickle till I return We are now fifty es see north, ent over asandhills with triodia, and that other aboe-bush In appearance it is so like low tea-tree, but it differs entirely froh it is not spiny like the triodia, it is alh for either to step over without stretching, and it is too strong to be easily
At thirty-five miles the open sandhills ceased, and scrubs cah a few groves of the pretty desert oak-trees, which I have not seen for sos were also seen to-day The horses wandered a long way back in the night
After travelling fifteen e, and we debouched upon a eucalyptus flat, which was covered with a beautiful carpet of verdure, and not having uly fine, and the bark dazzling white Here we found a clay crab-hole These holes are so-called in parts of Australia, usually near the coasts, where freshwater crabs and crayfish bury thees; the holes these creatures make are tubes of two, three, or four feet deep, whose sides and bottolass bottle; in these tubes they rees above, when for a time they are released The crab-hole we found contained a little water, which our horses drank with great avidity The range was now only six or sevensteep and deep gorges here and there, in its southern front It was ti water at it I was extrelasses, an excellent pair, had been ripped off my saddle in the scrubs, and I should now be disappointed in obtaining any distant view from the su's dew; They had been, and were not, was all that I knew”
Froe in the h scrub, over quartz, pebbly hills, and occasional gu a creek in that direction
In the gorge facing us we could discover a glittering little thread of water pouring down in a cascade froe below, and upon reaching it we found, to our great delight, that ere upon the stony bank of a beautiful and pellucid little streaht water was so clear that not till our horses splashed it up with their feet could we quite realise this treasure trove It was but a poor place for the horses to graze, on account of the glen being so stony and confined, but there was no occasion for therass, or a shady place either We had sou, Screened us fro Of the noontide sun”
This spot was distant about ninety ht line The day was cool and breezy After our dinner alked up to the foot of the cascade, along the reat boulders of rock; at the foot we found the rocks rose al little basin, into which the strealed with a most melodious sound, so pleasant to the ear at any tiht-accusto like the mur its ancient and august abode, still ht of 150 feet; the descent was not quite unbroken A delightful shower of spray fell forto a bath, which we exquisitely enjoyed; the basin was not hted with this new feature There were gorges to the right of us, gorges to the left of us, and there was a gorge all round us I shall not stay now to explore the the whole party here I called these the Alice Falls, after one of my sisters It was impossible to ascend the mountain via the cascade, so we had to flank it to reach the top The view froes upon ranges, some far and soh, bold-looking, e to the north-west forty or fifty miles off Up to a certain time ays called this the North-West Mountain, as it bore in that direction when first seen, until we discovered its proper naes intervened e ere now on, was 1000 feet above the surrounding level I found the boiling-point of water on this su the same as upon the summit of the Sentinel--that is to say, 3085 feet above the sea The country intervening between this and the other ranges in view, appeared open and good travelling ground The ranges beyond this have a brownish tinge, and are all entirely different from those at Fort Mueller The rock forranite All the ranges visible are entirely tiated, sos standing up on end; this for the first view We descended, caught our horses, and departed for Fort Mueller, eographical feature On the road back I recovered lasses The day was most deliciously cool, there was a sweet perfu was like one of those, so enjoyable in the spring, in the far-off agricultural districts of the fertile portions of the southern and eastern Colonies When we reached the red bare hill, fifty miles from home, we found the water had ceased to flow
At our Eone, the tank only holding so it would all evaporate before we could return, we cut a quantity of bushes and sticks to protect it fro,out
The outside water was now all but gone, but the hole still contained soh not sufficient for all the horses; we set to work and chopped out another hole with a tomahawk, and drained all the thick water off the clay-pan into it Then we cut boughs, bushes, and sticks to cover thearoo tank, we found to our disgust that the water was nearly all gone, and our original tank not large enough, so we chopped out another and drained all the surplus water into it Then the boughs and bushes and sticks for a roof ot, and by the ti Our hands were blistered, our arms were stiff, and our whole bodies bathed in streah it was a comparatively cool day We reached hoe on the 10th I was glad to hear that the natives had not troubled the caratified us also, and that was, Gibson had shot a large wallaby; we had not tasted meat since we left on the 7th
(ILlustRATION: ATTACK AT FORT MUELLER)
To-day, 14th, ere getting all our packs and things ready for a start into the new and northern regions, when at eleven aave the alaran to utter the most direful yells so soon as they found theer than before, and they were in communication with others in the tea-tree on the opposite side of the creek, whose loud and inharmonious cries an operations by poising their spears and waving us away We waited for so their ht of spears cah the fli the only parts thickly covered, and they could see us juht of spears came from the concealed enemy in the tea-tree Mr Tietkens and I rushed out, and fired right into the middle of the crowd Froht of spears; hoe escaped theine In the hs, and I decided that it was for us to take the aggressive We rushed up the rocks after the enemy, when they seemed to drop like caterpillars, as instantaneously, they were all down underneath us right at the camp I was afraid they would set fire to it; ever finally drove the them to decamp more or less the worse, and leave behind them a considerable quantity of military stores, in the shape of spears, wommerahs, waddies, wallabies' skins, owls, fly-flappers, red ochre, and nuht in triumph to the caes, and it was only when our lives were in h in the trade of war I have slain men, yet do I hold it very stuff o' the conscience to do no contrived murder I lack iniquity, sometih expecting our foes to return, but ere not again ht ere vipers that would not stand too , therefore we could not leave that day, and when they were found on the next, it was too late to start I tied one of these wretches up all night, so as to get the mob early to-morrow
I was very uneasy about the water in our tanks, as every hour's delay was of the greatest consequence I had no very great regret at leaving this depot, except that I had not been able to push out oing to the new northern range, that ht be easier We h at leaving our little gardens, for the seeds planted in rown reram, maize, peas, spinach, purew pretty well, with turnips and mustard Only tattles out of many dozens sown here cah the seeds of able in keeping the little gardens in order, and I believe was really grieved to leave them, but the inexorable mandates of circumstance and duty forced us from our pleasant places, to wander into ampler real, still we left behind us so h a city of refuge to us, was yet a dangerous and a dreadful home The water supply was now better than e arrived
”Our fount disappearing, Fro, I leave it to-morrow”
There were a nuarden produce in the night There were various dull-plued small birds, with hawks, crows, and occasionally ducks, and one aboly, and though I often walked up the glen I could never discover what sort of bird it was It, on those shattered rocks of wretchedness--on that Troglodytes' shore, where in spirit I ions yonder; but where I wish to squander, tiion, its toils and dangers legion, ain I hear the shocks of the shattering of the rocks, see the wallabies in flocks, all tre at the roar, of the volcanic reverberations, or seismatic detonations, which peculiar sensations I wish to know no th ere about to depart, not certainly in the direction I should have wished to go, but still to so new
Fort Mueller, of course, was named after my kind friend the Baron, as a personal contributor to the fund for this expedition It was really theplace it has ever been my fortune to visit Occasionally one would hear theinto the glen below, toppled from its eminence by some subterranean tremour or earthquake shock, and the vibrations of the seisroups and shapes than they fore, alular spot, for there was always a strange depression uponpartly perhaps from the constant dread of attacks from the hostile natives, and partly froion itself
”On all there hung a shadow and a fear, A sense of mystery, the spirit daunted, And said, as plain as whisper in the ear, This region's haunted”
On the 16th we departed, leaving to the native owners of the soil, this singular glen, where the water flowed only in the night, where the earthquake and the dry thunderstorm occurred every day, and turned our backs for the last time upon
”Their home by horror haunted, Their desert land enchanted,”