Part 18 (1/2)

My readers will fore when I tell the five or six h It is of a bold and rounded fored in its appearance anywhere, except where the eagle sat upon the rock at the Circus; its forranite, h some portions are red It is surrounded, except to the east, by deserts, and ions where the unvisited es, creeks and valleys, nearly all containing reservoirs of the purest water When the Australian sue, like a vast and crureat Creator's hand, east and west before ular feature in a strange land, and God knows by what beady drops of toilsome sweat Tietkens and I rescued it from its former and ancient oblivion Its position in latitude is between the 24th and 25th parallels, and its longitude between 127 degrees 30' and 128 degrees 30' I nae, after Sir Henry Rawlinson, President of the Royal Geographical Society of London I found a singular ummy substance, by which insects becoe froated, rounded, and treeless It rises between 1100 and 1200 feet in its highest portions, about the centre, in the neighbourhood of Fort McKellar, above the surrounding country, though its greatest elevation above the sea is over 3000 feet

On the 1st of February, after a very hot night, we made a late start for the North-west Mountain, which now bore nearly north-east It took soe, the appearance of the new feature ere steering for being ated front proclaies, while a more open valley ran between it and some lower hills ihted to get off the stones, that they travelled uncoht, though the country was exceedingly heavy travelling, being all high, red sandhills, and until near the end of our day's stage we could scarcely ever see the mountain at all We encaet some early next day at the ht, being thirsty, tired, and footsore; there was no grass for therees in the shade A great nu down this , and when mustered they all looked excessively hollow and thirsty If no water be found at this mountain, how many of them will be alive in a couple of days?

Yesterday we ht, and to-day at twenty-three,valley, up which we took the horses aGibson and Jimmy to await our return, Mr Tietkens and I rode away in search of water It was evident that only a trifling shower, if any, had visited this range, for not a drop of water could be found, nor any rock reservoirs where it e We parted coain we could only report to each other our non-success It was now past two o'clock, our horses had been ridden somewhat fast over the most horrible and desolate stony places, where no water is, and they were now in a very exhausted state, especially Mr

Tietkens's

There were yet one or two ravines in the southern face of the range, and while I ascended the mountain, Mr Tietkens and the others took the horses round that way and searched From the summit of this sterile mount I had expected at least a favourable view, but toof the kind was to be seen Two little hills only, bearing 20 and 14 degrees west of north, were the sole objects higher than the general horizon; the latter was forh, red sandhills, with casuarina between To the east only was a peaked and jagged range, which I called Mount Robert, afterred sand What was to be hoped froion such as this? Could water exist in it? It was scarcely possible For an independent watercourse I could not hope, because in the raph line which we had travelled, no creek had been es, and not a drop of water, so to speak, had I obtained away fro this Mount Disappoint from a distance, and yet I could find no water; and if none here, what possibility could there be of getting any in the midst of the dense bed of sandhills beyond? I did not test the boiling-point of water, for I had none to boil, but the elevation was about 1100 feet above the surrounding country Fro appearance, and I would have gone to it fro water about it But if, indeed, the inland ather froht zephyrs that fannedhopelessly fro, it was rather a warning that called , Let the rash wand'rer here beware; Heavennow, I joined the others at the foot of the hill, when Mr

Tietkens and Gibson informed me they had searched everywhere, but in vain The horses were huddled together in the shade of a thicket, three or four of the the pictures of wretchedness and woe It was now past four o'clock, and there was no alternative but to retreat

The Gorge of Tarns, thirty miles away, about south-south-west, was the nearest water, but between us and it was another low range with a kind of saddle or break in the ht, so we turned the horses' heads in that direction

One fine horse called Dia -horse, a same little animal that had always carried him well, albeit not too well treated, was also very bad, and two others were very troublesoe was a h and scrubby was it, I was afraid that night would descend upon us before we could reach the southern side Mr

Tietkens's Bluey gave in here, and fell heavily down a stony slope into a dense thicket of scrub; we had the greatest difficulty in getting hi him over the stones and down the reot him to the bottom He was severely cut and bruised in the descent We just et clear of the stones by dark, and unpacked the exhausted aniht We had no water except a rees, ourselves and our horses were choking for water

In theabout the camp; Bluey, Diamond, a little cob--mate or brother of the one killed on Elder's Creek--and one or two h ere up and after the, it was ten before I could despatch Mr Tietkens and Jimmy with the main mob Poor little Bluey died soon after sunrise Gibson was after the absent horses, which he brought at length, and we packed up and went after the others Gibson's usual riding-horse, Treas very bad, and quite unable to carry hi an old horse which I had purchased in Victoria, and had owned for soe I had hi villain, that no ordinary work could kill, and he was as lively as a cricket when Mr Tietkens rode him away; he usually carried a pack Ji cocky, now nearly dead froiven hie beasts in Australia often die of heat, within sight of water Jiray-hipped horse, which was also out on my former trip; he carried his rider well to the end Gibson I had ood as they ay, as it is possible for any of her sex, even of the human kind, to be Her proper name was the Fair Maid of Perth; but soaries, they called her the So My own riding-horse, a s little bay, a fine hack with excellent paces, called WA, I also had out previously He would pull on his bridle all day long to eat, he would even pretend to eat spinifex; he was now very bad and footsore Gibson and I overtook Mr Tietkens and Jimmy, and we pushed on as fast as we could, the distance we had now to go, not being ly high and severe, but all the horses got over the last one

We were now in full view of the range, with the Gorge of Tarns not more than five miles away But here Diamond and another, Pratt, that I had out bypit in November, fell, never to rise We took off their packs and left therees in the shade We pushed on, intending to return immediately ater to the relief of these unfortunates The pack-horses now presented a dele file, for it was quite impossible to keep the tail up with the leaders I shall try to give ht idea of them, if description is sufficiently palpable to do so The real leader was an old blacktears of salt rheu carried her 180 pounds at starting, and now desperately thirsty and deter to an inch where the water was; on she went, reaching the stony slopes about two utted, lanky bay horse, which having been bought at the Peake, I called Peveril; he was generally poor, but always able, if not willing, for his work Then cas, that got bogged in the Steetty-black harness-horse called Darkie, always very fat These last three carried 200 pounds each at starting Then Banks, the best saddle-horse I have, and which I had worked too e; he was very rey colt, called Diaway, having been very poor and miserable when first purchased, but he was a splendid horse Then ca old crab, Terrible Billy

He was always getting into the ot down our throats at last!--falling into holes, and up and down slopes, going at thehtest confidence in hi always did his ell enough Blackie next, a handso colt with a white stripe down his face, and very fast; and Formby, a bay that had done excellent harness-ith Diaht-carrier The next was Hollow Back, who had once been a fine-paced and good ju; he was very well bred and very game The next was Giant Despair, a perfect aunt, and bony, with screwed and lately staked feet Life for hi round of toil, but he was ht was toonot a whit the worse than when he left the last water, going neither faster nor slower than his wont He was dreadfully destructive with his pack-bags, for he would never get out of the road for anything less than a guer, two of ht a second ti up to the Peake Tommy was poor, old, and footsore, the most wonderful horse for his size in harness I ever saw

Badger, his reatest slug of a horse, I ever ca as a tonic; he ain, mile after mile, day after day, from water and to it He was now, as usual, at the tail of the straggling -horse called Trew He was an excellent little horse, but now so terribly footsore he could scarcely drag hi; he was one of six best of the lot If I put them in their order I should say, Banks, the Fair Maid of Perth, Trew, Guts (WA), Diaway, Blackie and Darkie, Widge, the big cob Buggs--the flea-bitten grey--Bluey, Badger, as a fine ae anyhow The last horse of all was the poor little shadow of a cob, the harness- the stones this poor little ghost fell, never again to rise We could give hiave in on the stones; I let hio and walked to the water I need scarcely say how thirsty we all were On reaching the water, and wasting no time, Mr Tietkens and I returned to the three fallen horses, taking with us a supply of water, and using the Fair Maid, Widge, Foro On reaching the little cob we found him stark and stiff, his hide all shrivelled and wrinkled, mouth wide open, and lips drawn back to an extraordinary extent Pushi+ng on we arrived where Diamond and Pratt had fallen They also were quite dead, and must have died immediately after they fell; they presented the same appearance as the little cob Thus my visit to the North-west Mountain had cost the lives of four horses, Bluey, Diamond, Pratt, and the cob The distance they had to travel was not great--less than ninety hts without water; but the heat was intense, the country frightful, and to get over the distance as soon as possible, we may have travelled rather fast The horses had not been well off for either grass or water at starting, and they were mostly footsore; but in the best of cases, and under the most favourable start from a water, the ephemeral thread of a horse's life ht of an Australian suetation, the triodia, and high and rolling sandhills exist for such enorht of the country, in all its hideous terrors clad, is sufficient to daunt a man and kill a horse I called the vile mountain which had caused me this disaster, Mount Destruction, for a visit to it had destroyed alike e of which it is the highest point, Carnarvon Range

We returned again to the Gorge of Tarns, as Mr Tietkens very tritely remarked, sadder but wiser h there is plenty of pere, it appears to be surrounded by such extensive deserts that advance or retreat is equally difficult, as now I had no water in tanks or otherwise between this and Fort Mueller, and not a horse ain seated under the splashi+ng fountain that falls from the rocks above, sheltered by the sunless caverns of this Gorge of Tarns, with a limpid liquid basin of the purest water at my feet, sheltered from the heated atmosphere which al us--sitting as I reat rock in a weary land, but we cannot shut out from the mind the perils we have endured, the perils we may yet have to endure For the present our wants and those of our gallant horses are supplied, but to the traveller in such a wilderness, when he once turns his back upon a water, the ever-recurring question presents itself, of when and where shall I obtain more? The explorer is necessarily insatiable for water; no quantity can satisfy him, for he requires it always and in every place Life for water he will at any ive, for water cannot be done without Therrees

We shall have to relen and the walls of stone that forhts passed in it are most oppressive The rocks have not ti, when descending froht air In the caves during to-day it was 98 degrees, and at eight o'clock at night outside it was 101 degrees We are pestered here terribly by flies, but not plagued by either ants orGibson and Jieons in every gorge and glen, and they co for water Unfortunately nearly all our sporting aood supply of defensive To-day the therrees while in the outside shade 104 degrees, the cause being hot winds from the south-east

While here we shod the ood deal of thunder and lightning The daytiht The sun does not appear over the eastern hills until nearly nine o'clock, and it passes behind the western ones at about 415 p too stony, and the grass and herbage too poor; therefore I shall retreat to the Pass of the Abencerrages and the pleasant encampment of Sladen Water One horse, Tommy, was still very bad, and had to be left on the road, not froe and exhaustion I sent for hiot back on the 12th of February; there was a fine lot of ducks e arrived, but those sportsetting one, wasting the powder and shot, which has now beco the ducks wild into the bargain The birds were so frightened that they split into several ht reet these, and went to soot a horse, and riding him bare-backed I drove the ducks quietly down to the ca behind with the horse, Gibson and Jih they knew they could never hit any of them; and just as I arrived I heard the report and saw all the ducks co overhead up the pass They went up therefore through the regions of the air singing sweetly as they went, but I did not sing so sweetly on the occasion Then ensued quite a scientific little ornithological lecture onmostly to the order of ducks, and the species known as wild ones more particularly, and I explained the subject to them in such a plain and forcible manner that both of the about, which is a great matter for lecturers to consider, because if, after a forcible harangue, a speaker's audience is in any wayof his remarks, why, then, his time and labour are both lost; therefore I purposely refrained froures of speech and rounded periods in words suitable for the ood effect on both of theer, although the loss of eight ducks was a frightfully heavy one to all of us; but I was partially consoled with the thought that they would have to bear their share of the loss A few hours afterwards I went after the ducks again, and by good fortune bagged six in one shot; one got away in the bushes, and the other fleay; and he seemed to me to have a very crooked flew at that These were the fattest birds I ever ate We had a fine supper of ducks, their flavour being sup(p)er-excellent

(ILlustRATION: DRAGGED BY DIAWAY)

(ILlustRATION: ATTACK AT SLADEN WATER)

The ants were terribly troublesoh we slept on the damp sand; so we shi+fted the camp up to the sater-hole, and selected as open a piece of ground as possible, as I intended the cahtning, with great heat and a few drops of rain Therrees There were countless numbers of the little cockatoo parrots here; they are very shy, and even when Gibson or Jiun at them, a dozen or two are sure to fall; it takes some time, however, before another shot can be had at theht to water I intend to visit the ridges which Ito the south-west, froe We shod the old black s, to take with us The 18th of February, 1874, was like to have proved a most eventful day in my life, for it was very nearly the ter Diaway, the colt just shod; he is seldoh a very fine hack, as he is such a splendid weight-carrier as a packhorse; he is rather skittish, and if anything goes wrong with his pack, he'll put it right (on the ground) al all the horses up to the caalloped across the creek There was a bank of stones about three feet high, which was hidden by a growth of rushes; Diaent bounding over the great bushes and inequalities of the channel, and reached the bank without seeing it, until too late, when heover upon me at the same time He scrambled up, but left me on the broad of my back On my feet were those wonderful boots before described, with the sixty horseshoe nails in each, and it was no wonder that one of ht in the stirrup on the off side of the horse It is one of the ine, to conteed before now, and only escaped byme attached to hi away at the same time into a dense thicket of scrub close by

Mr Tietkens and the others seeing the accident ca Fortunately I was not dragged far, but was literally kicked free frohtened and uncontrolled anis and body, but mostly upon that portion of the frame which it is considered equally indecorous to present either to a friend or an eneth bent one or two of the nail-heads which heldthe upper leather offth free As I lay on my excoriated back, I saay depart without ht, althoughsensations I experienced Mr Tietkens helped anised state, though thanking Providence for so fortunate an escape Had Diaway but entered the scrub not two yards from where I was released, I could not have existedeverything ready to go with reat doubts of my ability to ride, e became aware of the presence of a whole host of natives i the little dog had been strangely perturbed, and we knew by the natives' fires that they were in our irass and tall rushes in the creek bed, that they could approach very close before we could possibly see them So soon as they found themselves detected, as usual they set up the round, sent a flight of spears at us before a rifle or a gun could be seized, and we had to ju on purpose, to escape Our stand of ar the bullets flying just above their heads and at their feet The report of the weapons and the whirring sound of the swiftly passing shotsus out of their territories, to the south Seeing us, however, ain they advanced, uttering their war cries with renewed energy Again the spears would have been a even the idea of barbed spears being stuck through my body, determined not to permit either my own or any ofa rout, and driving the enereat number of natives in the bushes, besides those who attacked us There were not rey hair I am reminded here to mention that in none of my travels in these western wilds have I found any places of sepulture of any kind The graves are not consumed by the continual fires that the natives keep up in their huntings, for that would likewise be the fate of their old and deserted gunyahs, which we meet with frequently, and which are neither all nor half destroyed Even if the natives put no boughs or sticks upon their graves, we ns of burial-places, if not of bones or skulls My opinion is, that these people eat their aged ones, and most probably those who die from natural causes also

It was a cool, breezy day, and, in consequence of the hostile action of the natives, I did not depart on the south-west excursion I was not sorry to delay reat pain all over I now decided to leave Mr Tietkens and take Ji any valuable discovery on this trip; for had there been ranges of any elevation to the ard, or beyond the ridges in question, I should in all probability have seen thee, and should have visited them in preference to Mount Destruction I felt it incuht obtain a view of so features beyond

CHAPTER 28 FROM 20TH FEBRUARY TO 12TH MARCH, 1874

Journey south-west

Glens and springs

Rough watering-place

A marble bath

Glassy rocks

Swarms of ants

Solitary tree

An oven

Terrible night

And day