Part 22 (1/2)

Lake Aain

A new slue-pot

An invention

Friendly natives

A fair and fertile tract

The Finke

A white ear

The Charlotte

The Peake

In the mail

Hear of dick's death

In Adelaide

Concluding rean our retreat, and finally left Fort McKellar, whereat the pass we cas, where both Mr Tietkens and Gibson, had planted a patch of splendid soil, Gibson having done the same at Fort McKellar with all kinds of seeds; but the only thing that carown nearly three feet high The weather was now delightful, and although in full retreat, had there been no glooood food to eat, with such fine horses as Banks, and Diaway, WA, Trew, Blackie, etc to ride, and a line of atered country before us for hundreds of ht have considered our return a pleasure trip; but gloo alreatly liked, and it was free fro line of fine eucalyptus tiround covered with rushes, which ether it was a most desirable spot for an explorer's caot fat here It is iet Sladen Water or the Pass of the Abencerrages: ”Methinks I am as well in this valley as I have been anywhere else in all our journey; the place methinks suits with my spirit I love to be in such places, where there is no rattling with coaches, nor ru heels Methinks here onewhat he is, and whence he ca has called him” (Bunyan) On the Queen's birthday we bade it a last farewell, and departed for the east and civilisation, once more We now had the route that Mr Tietkens and I had explored in March--that is to say, passing and getting water at all the following places:--Gill's Pinnacle, the Ruined Rampart, Louisa's Creek, and the Chirnside The country, as I have said before, was excellent and good for travelling over The crescent-shaped and wall-like range running from the Weld Pass to Gill's Pinnacle, and beyond it, I nah it I named Vladimar Pass, in honour of Prince Vladimar, son of the Emperor of Russia, married to the Princess of Schwerin When we reached the place where we first surprised the natives hunting, in March, we made a h and over very rough hills, and in so doing we found on the 1st of June another splendid watering-place, where several creeks joined and ran down through a rocky defile, or glen, to the north There was plenty of both rock and sand water here, and it was a very pretty and excellent little place I called it Winter's Glen, and theCreek This waterfro to the west, which I named Mount Phillips This is a very conspicuous , like many of the others named on this line, detached to alloatercourses to pass northwards, and yet for northern wall, of which the Petere is fora, although it is seventy rees north of west The water gorge at Winter's Glen bears west frohest point of Mount Phillips, and four ain in the territories of South Australia, having bid farewell to her sister state, and turned our backs upon that peculiar province of the sun, the last of austral lands he shi+nes upon We next paid a visit to Glen Robertson, of 15th March, as it was a convenient place froar-loaf To reach it we had to make a circuitous line, under the foot of the farthest east hill, where, it will be re dinner-tilen early There was yet another detached hill in the northern line, which is the e I nauished frorees east of north We rested here a day, during which several natives nal fires for others There is a great difference between signal and hunting fires; ere perfectly acquainted with both, as inal fiend, of the hos as usual, sneaked so close upon us, down the rocks behind the camp, that he could easily have touched or tomahawked--if he had one--either of us, before he was discovered My little dog was sometimes too lazy to obey, when a little distance off, the command to sit, or stand up; in that case I used to send hiram, as I called it--that is to say, throw a little stone at him, and up he would sit ia down near Mr Tietkens, when a stone ca hiain Immediately after another stone came, and up sat cocky This aroused Mr Tietkens's curiosity, as he didn't hear , and he said, ”Did you send cocky a telegram?” I said, ”No” ”Well then,” said he, ”somebody did twice: did you, Jimmy?” ”No” ”Oh!” I exclaimed, ”it's those blacks!” We jumped up and looked at the low rocks behind us, whereabout half-a-dozen sidling sloay behind them Jimmy ran on top, but they had all mysteriously disappeared We kept a sharp look out after this, and fired a rifle off two or three tiroans and yells in front of us up the creek gorge

Having got so out, ent there again On the road, at ninenorth I called it the Ar; there was no water where we crossed it At twenty e rock-hole, and water in the sand of the creek-bed I called this Wyselaski's Glen, and the creek the Hopkins It was a very fine and pretty spot, and the grass excellent On reaching the Peak or Sugar-loaf, without troubling the old rocky shelf, so difficult for horses to approach, and where there was very little water, we found another spot, a kind of native well, half a e, and over a rise We pushed on now for Mount Olga, and caht of the 5th June was very cold and windy; rees Thedelayed us, and it was quite late at night when Mount Olga was reached I was veryits rocky bed, and all the little basins full The water, as when I last saw it, ended where the solid rock fell off The country all around was excessively dry, and the grass withered, except in the channel of the creek, where there was soreen Froht east to the Finke, as a considerable distance upon that line was yet quite unknown One of our horses, Formby, was unwell, and very troublesome to drive We are nearly at the end of our stock of Tommy, and Formby is a candidate for the sh we have yet enough Tommy for another week While here, I rode round northward to inspect that side of this singular and utterly unclimbable mountain Our caainst the highestspring, with soer rock-basins than at our ca where the rock ended Round on the north side I found a still stronger spring, in a larger channel I rode completely round the mass of this wonderful feature; its extraordinary appearance will never be out of in, belched out of the bowels, and on to the surface, of the earth, by the sulphurous upheavings of subterraneous and subaqueous fires, and cooled and solidified into elid currents of the deepmost waves of the most ancient of former oceans As I before remarked, it is composed of mixed and rounded stones, formed into rounded shapes, but some upon the eastern side are turreted, and some almost pillars, except that their thickness is rather out of proportion to their height The highest point of the whole, as given before, is 1500 feet above the ground, while it is 2800 feet above the sea-level Could I be buried at Mount Olga, I should certainly borrow Sir Christopher Wren's epitaph, Circumspice si monumentum requiris To the eastward from here, as mentioned in e and singular-looking mound, similar perhaps to this Beyond that, and still further to the east, and a very long way off, was another e, but very indistinct from distance

On the 9th ent away to the near bare-looking mountain to the east; it entyin sand under the abrupt and rocky face of the mount upon its southern side There was also a fine, deep, shady, and rooinal fashi+on There were two , in parallel lines with spots between thee of my former expedition, and must have crossed the extremity of Lake Amadeus He named this Ayers' Rock Its appearance and outline is , for it is simply a mammoth monolith that rises out of the sandy desert soil around, and stands with a perpendicular and totally inaccessible face at all points, except one slope near the north-west end, and that at least is but a precarious cliht of ated sides the trickling of water for untold ages has descended in tie ceased, into sandy basins at its feet The di, over one reat difference between it and Mount Olga is in the rock forranite stone, and is part and parcel of the original rock, which, having been for, has there rea has been thrown up subsequently frorotesque; Mount Ayers the more ancient and sublia springs, it lies all in standing pools There is excellent grazing ground around this rock, though now the grass is very dry It ht almost be said of this, as of the Pyramids or the Sphinx, round the decay of that colossal rock, boundless and bare, the lone and level sands stretch far away This certainly was a fine place for a cae into its sunless deeps was a frigid tonic that, further west in the summer heats, would have been almost paradisiacal, while noas ale further east seea It is flat on the suh and flat-topped ust last We are encamped in the roomy cave, for we find it reat a consideration now, as shade had formerly been

We started for the flat-topped hill on the 11th of June The country was all extremely heavy sandhills, with casuarina and triodia; we had to enca the Formby knocked up, and lay down, and we had to leave hiot over thirty ht miles off It lookswater is concerned The region was a perfect desert, worse for travelling, indeed, than Gibson's Desert itself Leaving Jimmy with the horses, Mr Tietkens and I rode over to the mount, and reached it in seven miles At a mile and a half from it we came to an outer escarpment of rocks; but between that and the mount more sandhills and thick scrub exist We rode all round this strange feature; it was ht its sides sloped; the crown rested upon a perpendicular wall It was almost circular, and perfectly flat upon the top, apparently having the saetation and tiround below I don't know that it is accessible; it seemed not; I saw no place, and did not attempt to ascend it

To the north, and about fifteen miles away, the not yet ended Aes bounded the view There were a few dry clay-pans here, but no water We were sixty o sixty, or a hundred, or more miles before we should reach water The only water I knew on this line of latitude was at the Finke itself, nearly 200 es, for we must smoke another horse, and we have no water to push any farther here We returned to Jimmy and the horses, and pushed back for the rock as fast as we could When we reached the spot where we had left Formby he had wandered away We went some distance on his tracks, but could not delay for a further search No doubt he had lain down and died not far off I was sorry now I had not sh he was scarcely fit even for explorers' food We got back to the rock on the 15th, very late at night, hungry and thirsty The next day orked at a new smoke-house, and had to shi+ft the ca, till the meat is safe The sround and coether at the top, with cross sticks all the way down, and covered over with tarpaulins, so that no sh the top The meat is cut into thin strips, and becomes perfectly permeated with smoke So soon as all was ready, doent poor Hollow Back He was in what is called good working condition, but he had not a vestige of fat about him The only adiposehis bones, and the small quantity of oil thus obtained would only fry a few meals of steaks When that was done we had to fry or parboil the the horseflesh after the freshwith the axe, to it into s it with a pannikin of flour, putting it into the coals in the frying-pan, and covering the whole with hot ashes But the flour would not last, and those delicious horse-das of the past, were by no s The boiled-up bones, hoofs, shanks, skull, etc, of each horse, though they failed to produce a sufficient quantity of oil to please us, yet in the cool of the night resolved thelue, and at breakfast at least, when this disgusting stuff was in a reatest politeness to pass the glue-pot Had it not been that I was an inventor of transcendent genius, even this last luxury would have been debarred us We had been absent fro, that our tin billies, the only boiling utensils we had, got cos for glue and oil o on, e to do with billies with no bottoh as an inventor I can allow no one to depreciatethat could be done, and those muffs Tietkens and Jimmy actually advised reat inventions are simple--to cover the bottoms with canvas, and embed the billies half-way up their sides in cold ashes, and boil from the top instead of the bottolue- and flesh-pots The tongue, brains, kidneys, and other titbits of course were eaten first

On the 19th soan to yell near the camp, but three only made their appearance They were not only the least offensive and most civil we hadin their welcoave them some of the bones and odd pieces of horse-reat satisfaction, and they ate some pieces raw They were in undress uniform, and ”free as Nature first an, when, wild in the woods, the noble savage ran” They were rather good, though extre black curls waving in the wind, hanging down nearly to his nons They remained with us only about three hours The day indy, sand-dusty, and disagreeable One blast of wind blew , so violently to the ground that it broke

Mr Tietkens had been using a s natives were gone it was discovered that the plyers had departed also; it was only Christian charity to hope that they had NOT gone together It was evident that Mr Gosse et here froht I would be so far beholden to hi-place

We left the Rock on the 23rd, but only going four o back without hobbles to feed for the night Where the lake was crossed Mr Gosse had laid down a broad streak of bushes and boughs, and we crossed withoutthe dray track at the lower end of King's Creek of my former journey, we struck across for Penny's Creek, four miles east of it, where the splendid rocky reservoir is, and where there was delicious herbage for the horses We had now a fair and fertile tract to the River Finke, discovered by ot's, Trickett's, and Peterers's Pass and Ponds

Thence down the Palmer by Briscoe's Pass, and on to the junction of the Finke, where there is a fine large water-hole at the junction

On the 10th of July travelling down the Finke near a place called Crown Point on the telegraph line, hitetowards us He proved to be a Mr Alfred Frost, the owner of several fine horse-tea for the Governraph stations farther up the line I had known hi ahead to select a ca nothing but horse-flesh, he i teams He called a halt, ordered the horses to be unyoked, and ere soon laughing and shaking hands with new-found friends Food was the first order Mr Frost gave, and while so the tea-billies, while old Frost was extracting a quart of rue in more than a sip or two, as bread and meat e cared for most In ten minutes the tea was ready; some splendid fat corned beef, and mustard, and well-cooked damper were put before us, and oh, didn't we eat! Then pots of jams and tins of butter were put on our plates whole, and were scooped up with spoons, till huanisms could do no more We were actually full--full to repletion Then we had so Next we had a sleep, and then at sundown another exquisite meal

Itstock of Hollow Back, e emptied it out on a tarpaulin and told the on However, I s Most of the teamsters knew Gibson, and expressed their sorrow at his mishap; some of them also kneas ressive at the telegraph stations, while ere absent, and all our firearear Mr Frost fell in love with Banks at a glance, and, though I tried not to part with the horse, he was so anxious to buy hih I had intended to keep him and West Australian Trew, one of the best horses, had been staked early in the journey and his foot was blemished, otherwise he was a splendid horse All the best horses anted--Diaway, Blackie, etc, but I kept WA, Widge, and one or two more of the best, as we still had several hundreds of o

When we parted from our friends we only had a few horses left We reached the Charlotte Waters about twelve o'clock on July 13th, having been nearly a year absent from civilisation Our welcome here by my friend and namesake, Mr Christopher Giles, was of the war father He had also recovered and kept my old horse cocky The whole of the establishment there, testified their pleasure at our return On our arrival at the Peake our reception by Mr and Mrs Blood at the telegraph station was ot also supplied us with many necessaries at his cattle-station The y here, and I obtained a seat and was driven by him as far as the Blinman Copper Mine, via Beltana, where I heard that my black boy dick had died of influenza at a camp of the semi-civilised natives near a hill called by Eyre, Mount Northwest Froular mail coach and train nearly 300 miles to Adelaide Mr Tietkens and Ji horses at the Blinman, where they also took the coach and joined me in Adelaide a week later

I have now but a few concluding remarks to make; for my second expedition is at an end, and those of lad to arrive at the end as I was I may truly say that for nearly twelve ht slave not only of the sextant, the compass, and the pen, but of the shovel, the axe, and the needle also There had been a continual strain on brain and muscle The leader of such an expedition as this could not stand by and siive orders for certain work to be perforood example of heart and hand assist and cheer those hom he was associated To ations, for I found hi for the s My expedition had been unsuccessful in its uine hopes had been destroyed I knew at starting a great deal was expected from me, and if I had not fulfilled the hopes of my friends, I could only console them by the fact that I could not even fulfil my own But if it is conceded that I had done my devoir as an Australian explorer, then I a succeeds like success, but it is not in the power of man--however he may deserve--to command it

Many trials and ion experience The life of a man is to be held at no htest accident or want of judged in such an enterprise, and it h a baptism worse indeed than that of fire--the baptisain take the field is more than I would undertake to say:--

”Yet the charh discovery, Is ever vocal in the outorld; But those alone may hear it who have hearts, Responsive to its tone”

I may add that I had discovered a line of waters to Sladen Water and Fort McKellar, and that at a distance of 150 e At what price that range was sighted I need not now repeat It is highly probable that water exists there also

It was, however, evident to me that it is only with camels there is much likelihood of a successful and permanently valuable issue in case of any future atteentleman in the whole of Australia who could supply the e must in future be, as it is at present, indebted for ultientleman was the Honourable Sir Thoreatly indebted, and I trust, though unsuccessful, I bring no discredit upon him for his exertions on my behalf

The reement, was handed over to the South Australian Government, and printed as Parlias that occurred have since been added It was not to be supposed that in a civilised cost educated people, that such a record should pass unnoticed I receivedThe truest, perhaps, was froentleman who patted me on the back and said, ”Ah, Ernest, my boy, you should never have come back; you should have sent your journal home by Tietkens and died out there yourself” His Excellency Sir George Bowen, the Governor of Victoria, was very kind, and not only expressed approval of my exertions, but wrote favourable despatches on my behalf to the Colonial Office (This was also the case subsequently with Sir William Robinson, KCMG, the Governor of Western Australia, after ent-General for the Colony of Victoria, when Preood turn of a terateful