Part 19 (1/2)

No hu could have been h I was yet dooe The pigeons shot last night were covered within and without by ants, although they had been put in a bag The horses looked wretched, even after watering, and I saw that it was actually necessary to give thehtful sandhills which I could see intervened between us and the distant ridges Truly the hours I spent in this hideous gorge were hours of torture; the sun roasted us, for there was no shade whatever to creep into; the rocks and stones were so heated that we could neither touch, nor sit upon the than ever I almost cried aloud for the mountains to fall upon me, and the rocks to cover me I passed several hours in the marble bath, the only place the ants could not encroach upon, though they sware of the water But in the water itself were numerous little fiendish water-beetles, and these creatures bit one almost as badly as the ants In the bath I remained until I was almost benuorge would seehtful for a few ain The therrees in the shade of the only tree At three pm the horses came up to water I was so horrified with the place I could no longer reh Jimmy sat, and probably slept, in the scanty one tree's shade, and seeh he were in a fine house In going up to the water two of the horses again fell and hurt themselves, but the old blear-eyed mare never slipped or fell At four pot clear of the rough hills, e turned upon our proper course for the ridges, which, however, we could not see In two or three ions once more, when it soon rose into hills The triodia was as thick and strong as it could grow The country was not, so to say, scrubby, there being only low bushes and scrubs on the sandhills, and casuarina trees of beautiful outline and appearance in the hollows When the horses got clear of the stones they began to eat everything they could snatch and bite at

At fifteen rass

The horses fed pretty well for a tian to think it time to be off, and she soon would have led the others back to the range She dreaded this country, and kneell by experience and instinct what agony was in store for her Jiot them back and short-hobbled the to be co to rehtful night's rest, although, of course, I did not sleep The horses were sulky and would not eat; therefore they looked as hollow as druround that was before them However, this had to be done, or at least atteot away early We were in the midst of the sandhills, and here they rose al to the horses, the therrees in the shade e rested at twenty-two miles Nor was this the hottest tih the sand es, for thirty-seven th we found the nearest were pretty close to us They see the first, we ascended it, and I could see at a glance that any prospect of finding water was utterly hopeless, as these low ridges, which ran north and south, were ranite, not her than the sandhills which surrounded the rains Not a rise could be seen in any direction, except, of course, from where we had come We went on west five or six miles farther to the end of these, just about sundown: and long, indeed, will that peculiar sunset rest inball of fire that with his last beae at our defiance of his ular that only at this particular sunset, out of the millions which have elapsed since this terrestrial ball first floated in ether, that I, or indeed any White man, should stand upon this wretched hill, so remote from the busy haunts of my fellow nificant a ruous as the regions which stretched out before me In the first place I could only conclude that no water could exist in this region, at least as far as the sand beds extend I was now, though of course some distance to the south also, about thirty miles to the west of the e

Froe no object had been visible above the sandhills in any westerly direction, except these ridges I aes or hills anywhere within a hundred hted them The inference to be drawn in such a case was, that in all probability this kind of country would remain unaltered for an enormous distance, possibly to the very banks of the Murchison River itself The question very naturally arose, Could the country be penetrated by man, with only horses at his command, particularly at such a heated time of year? Oh, would that I had caion and such a heated temperature as this? The ani the terrors of this country I was now scarcely a hundred miles from the camp, and the horses had plenty of water up to nearly halfway, but now they looked utterly unable to return What a strangethe names of those separated features, the only ones at present known to supply water in this latitude--that is to say, the Murchison River, and this new-found Rawlinson Range, naraphical Society of London The late and the present, the living and the dead, physically and metaphysically also, are not these features, as the ulf of the unknown, by a vast stretch of that undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveller returns?

The sun went down, and I returned to my youthful companion with the horses below We were fifty-one miles from the water we had left The horses were pictures of reatly fro on the slippery rocks

The old black h a sorry hack, looked worse than I had ever seen her before, and even the youthful and light-heeled and -hearted Diaway hung his head, and one could almost span him round the flanks The miserable appearance of the animals was caused as much by want of food as want of water, for they have scarcely eaten a mouthful since we left the pass; indeed, all they had seen to eat was not inviting

We slowly left these desolate ridges behind, and at fifteen ry and thirsty Our s us whenever we took acooked, and we had to sacrifice a drop of our stock of water to make a Johnny-cake It was late by the tio to sleep if he felt inclined; I then caught and tied up the horses, which had already raot back I found Jimmy had literally takenthe coals and ashes of the fire, in which we had cooked our cake I rolled hi fire, but he did not awake The night was very war, but I was in such pain all over from my recent accident, that I could not remain still I only waited to allow Jimmy a little sleep, or else he would have fallen off his horse, and caused more delay I walked to, and tried to console, the horses Sleepless and restless, I could no longer re--do not touch him, do not wake him; but Armor had to be awakened But first I saddled and put up everything on the horses Jiue dry and half out of his ht the kindest way to wake him was to pour a little water into his mouth Up he jumped in a , steering by the stars until daylight; slowlyover sandhill after sandhill Soon after sunrise we fell in with our outgoing track, and continued on, though we had great trouble to keep the horses going at all, until we reached our old enca now only fifteen one so dreadfully slow, I thought they would give in altogether So soon as they were unsaddled they all lay down, shi+vering and groaning fearfully

To see a horse in a state of great thirst is terrible, the natural cavity opens to an extraordinary size, and the creature strains and enerally worse in these cases than horses Old Buggs and the mare were nearly dead Diaway suffered less than the others We had yet a s, and it was absolutely necessary to sacrifice it to the horses if ished thegs and the ot was only just enough tothis place at eleven a at the rate of only two rees at eleven am

When we took the saddles off the horses, they fell, as they could only stand when in e; they all fell, they were so weak, and it took nearly an hour to get them up to the bath They were too weak to prevent the at the sas touched the bottos with his forefeet against the rock wall, and his head bent down between, and drank thus I never saw a horse drink in that fashi+on before

It was very late e got theo without hobbles The ants were as ra up and down the glen Towards ain for water, but would not return, preferring to ree down in the dark

I went right up to the top of the ot an hour's peace before the sun rose In the s were puffed and swelled, and they were frightened tothem down at all It was impossible to ride them away, and here we had to reelid lowest circle of hell, or city of Dis, could cause uish, to a forced resident within its bounds, than did this frightful place to h Moses did omit to inflict ants on Pharaoh, it is a wonder Dante never thought to have a region of them full of wicked wretches, eternally tortured with their bites, and stings, and sination can't conceive the horror of a region swar with ants and then Dante never lived in an ant country, and had no conception what torture such creatures can inflict The smaller they are the more terrible My only consolation here was my marble bath, which the horses had polluted; within its cool and shady depths I could alone find respite from my tormentors Oh, how earnestly did I wish that its waters were the waters of oblivion, or that I could quaff some kind nepenthe, which would make me oblivious of ly continued

”Froht till morn, from morn till dewy eve”

Here of course we had no dewy eve Only one slight source of pleasure at length occurred to an to shi+ft about a bit at last On the 26th, hat delight I departed froony, and h of course I was indebted to the glen for water, and unless we actually give up our lives, we cannot give up that There was a good deal of water in this bath, as may be supposed when horses could swim about in it I called it Edith's Marble Bath, afternamed Glen Edith also after her on my forh very like it I saw no lie; the only approach to it is in the limestone formation in the bed of the ancient Lake Christopher, e The stone here was a kind of h slopes of the range, and got to Glen Helen at night, but old Buggs knocked up, and we had to lead, beat, and drive hilen We got all three horses back to the pass early the next day

No natives had appeared, but the horses had never been seen since I left Oh, didn't I sleep that night! no ants Oh, happiness! I hadn't slept for a week

The next day, the 28th of February, Gibson and Ji-place about two miles and a half south from here, where emus used to water, and where the horses did likewise; there they found all the horses There was a very marked improvement in their appearance, they had thriven splendidly There is fine green feed here, and it is a capital place for an explorer's depot, it being such an agreeable and pretty spot Gibson and Jiot a supply of pigeons for breakfast Each day we more deeply lament that the end of our aot some hawks, crows, and parrots I don't knohich of these in particular disagreed with me, but I suppose the natural antipathy of these creatures to one another, when finding theh to set the even after death and burial; all I kneas the belli was going on in such a peculiar manner that I had to abandon my dinner almost as soon as I had eaten it It is now absolutely necessary to kill a horse for food, as our aone Mr Tietkens and I went to find a spot to erect a sot a place half a rees Mr Tietkens and I co we did was to break the axe handle Gibson, who thought he was a carpenter, blacksmith, and jack-of-all-trades by nature, without art, volunteered to make a new one, to which no one objected The new handle lasted until the first sapling required was almost cut in then the new handle came in two also; so we had to return to the camp, while Gibson made another handle on a new principle With this orked while Gibson and Ji brutes of horses are always away by themselves, and Mr Tietkens and I went to look for, but could not find them We took the shovel and filled up the emu water-hole with sand, so that the horses had to show theht For two or three days we shod horses, shot pigeons, and worked at the s any of the horses, and determined to make a trip eastwards, to see what the country in that direction was like We chopped up some rifle bullets for shot, to enable Gibson and Jimmy to remain while ere away, as a retreat to Fort Mueller from here was a bitter idea to me Before I can attee in the weather The sky was again beco equinox

The three horses we required for the trip we put down through the north side of the pass On March 10th, getting our horses pretty easily, we started early As soon as we got clear of the pass on the north side, al nearly east, which we reached in five ood view of the country farther east A curved line of abrupt-faced hills traversed the northern horizon; they had a peculiar and wall-like appearance, and see pinnacle thirty-four or five e swept round in a half circle, northwards, and thence to the pinnacle We travelled along the slopes of the Rawlinson Range, thinking wenow nearly opposite the Alice Falls One or two rough and stony gullies, in which there was no water, existed; the country was very rough I found the Rawlinson Range ended in fifteen or sixteen es rose up to the east; the intervening country seemed pretty well filled with scrub We pushed on for the pinnacle in the northern line, but could not reach it by night as ere delayed en route by searching in several places for water The day was hot, close, cloudy, and sultry In front of us now the country became very scrubby as we approached the pinnacle, and for about three miles it was almost impenetrable We had to stop several tih, e e up its channel, soon saw soreen rushes in the bed A little further upst them a fine little pond of water Farther up, the rocks rose in walls, and underneath the water, which filled several s and rushi+ng waters, but could not see from whence those sounds proceeded This was such an excellent place that we decided to remain for the rest of the day The natives were all round us, burning the country, and we could hear their cries This h two fresh fires, which they lit, probably, to prevent our progress; they followed us up to this water I suppose they were annoyed at our finding such a reular little glen There are several small h the ground was originally all stones, places like paths have been cleared between thee, bare, flat rock in the centre of these strange heaps, which were not h I concluded--it may be said uncharitably, but then I know some of the ways and customs of these people--that these are small kinds of teocallis, and that on the bare rock already ain perfors of the pellucid fountains from the rocky basins above have been echoed and re-echoed by the dripping fountains of huore from the veins and arteries of their bound and helpless victih the day was hot, the shade and the water were cool, and we could indulge in a est basin was not deep, but the water was running in and out of it, over the rocks, with considerable force We searched about to discover by its sound from whence it came, and found on the left-hand side a crevice of white quartz-like stone, where the water came down from the upper rocks, and ran away partly into the basins and partly into rushes, under our feet On the sloping face of the white rock, and where the water ran doas a small indent or smooth chip exactly the size of a person's mouth, so that we instinctively put our lips to it, and drank of the pure and gushi+ng element I firmly believe this chip out of the rock has been fores placing theirat this spot; but whether in connection with any sacrificial ceremonies or no, deponent knoweth, and sayeth not The poet Spenser, o, ination, for see how he describes it:--

”And fast beside there trickled softly down, A gentle streast the broken stones, and made a sowne, To lull hi that way Therein ht often quench his thirsty heat, And then by it, his weary liet His former pain), and wash away his toilsome sweet”

(ILlustRATION: GILL'S PINNACLE)

There is very poor grazing ground round this water It is only valuable as a wayside inn, or out I called the singular feature which points out this water to the wanderer in these western wilds, Gill's Pinnacle, after s, after his son In the htnings illu ines ht at our appearance here by the eesticulations, and indecent actions, and, to hehten us out, or roast us to death, they set fire to the triodia all round We rode through the flames, and away

CHAPTER 29 FROM 12TH MARCH TO 19TH APRIL, 1874

The Rebecca

The Petere

Extraordinary place

The Docker

Livingstone's Pass

A park

Wall-like hills

The Ruined Rareen, and blue water

Park-like scenery

The Hull

A high cone

Sugar-loaf Peak