Part 23 (1/2)

At fifty hty-five froh several , and perhaps a mile wide, Mr Murray's black boy informed us was the footmark or track of a hbourhood of this big plain, and that it had been driven by the cockata blacks out of the es of my last expedition, and which are over 400 miles from the bay He added that the creature had crawled down to the coast, and now lived in the sea

So here was reliable authority for the existence of a sea serpent We had often heard tales froht, about this wonderful animal, and whenever any native spoke about it, it was always in a mysterious undertone What the name of this monster was, I cannot now reh in it to oon itself The tales that were told of it, the number of natives it had devoured, how such and such a black fellow's father had encountered and speared it, and how it had occasionally created floods all over the country when it was angry, would have ht be produced under the title of a ”Black Ro black felloho now accompanied us, on the absurdity of his notions, he becaionists it was no laughing e, and that was, how these coast natives should know there were any mountains to the north of them I knew it, because I had been there and found them; but that they should knoas curious, for they have no intercourse with the tribes of natives in the country to the north of theood deal of persuasion to induce the young blacks who accoo out to Youldeh; and if it had not been that an old o with the ca ones would not have gone at all

After crossing the salt lagoon or ani five ranite rocks ast some low hills, which rose up out of the plain, where some rock water-holes existed, and here we found the two blacks that had preceded us, encamped with the caa; the eye was charrass As the day was very hot, we erected tarpaulins with sticks, this being the only shade to sit under There were a few hundred acres of good country round the rocks; the supply of water was lia our route to Youldeh lay about north-north-west, distant thirty-three miles For about twenty-five miles we traversed an entirely open plain, similar to that just described, andbrooht hand, to the north, and stretching also to the west, was a dark line of higher ground fored with low scrub, and timber of various kinds, such as cypress pines (callitris), black oak (casuarinas) stunted mallee (eucalyptus), and a kind of acacia called e of the plain, and is the southern bank of a vast bed of sandhill country that lies between us and the Musgrave Ranges nearly 300 e of the plain we had been traversing,entered the bed of sandhills and scrub which lay before us, and, following the tracks of the two black felloith the camels, as there was no road to Youldeh, we cahtest indication to point out such a thing, except that we descended into lower ground, there existed a shallow native well in the sandy ground of a small holloeen the red sandhills, and this spot the blacks said was Youldeh The whole region was gloith intense heat, and the sand was so hot, that neither the ca in the sun, but so soon as they were unpacked and unsaddled, sought the shade of the large and nurew all round the place

As there were five whites and four blacks, we had plenty of hands to set about the different tasks which had to be perfor out the old well; this so with tarpaulins, got firewood, and otherwise turned the wild and bushy spot into a locality suitable for a white man's encampment Water was easily procurable at a depth of between three and four feet, and all the ani watered with canvas buckets; the cah they never would be satisfied

It was only their parching thirst that induced the horses to reot sufficient water, they de-cah red sandhills fro-horse, Chester, the worst of the mob, went nearly n of a blade of grass, or anything else that horses could eat, except a few yellow ie coarse description, and these they did not care very e and evidently agreeable uminosae, which abounded The conduct of the two kinds of animals was so distinctly different as to arouse the curiosity of all of us; the camels fed in peaceful content in the shade of the bushes fro to take great interest in all we did, and evidently thoroughly enjoying the about in hobbles over the sandhills, snorting and fretting with fright and exertion, and neither having or apparently desiring to get anything to eat Their sole desire was to get away as far as possible from the camels The supply of water here seemed to be unli in; therefore we got sos of the native poplar (Codonocarpus cotinifolius, of the order of Phytolacceae), and thoroughly slabbed it, at least sufficiently for our ti at the bottost the sandhills, and all we could see froher, darker, andundulations of a similar kind These undulations existed to the east, north, and west, while to the south we could but die upon the plain we had recently traversed The water here was fresh and sweet, and if the teht have enjoyed our encampment here; but there was no air, and we seemed to be at the bottom of a funnel The old black fellow, Jiuide to show me soh the interpretation of Mr Murray, that he knew of only one water in any direction towards the west, and this he said was a s day Mr Murray and I rode there with old Ji nearly west-north-west about fourteen allons of water, which was al birds, rats, lizards, rotten leaves, and sticks that were in it; had it been full it would have been of no earthly use to ot out of his latitude once or twice before we reached the place He was, however, proud of finding himself in the novel position, albeit rather late in life, of riding upon horseback, and if I rehtly did not tu the whole day Jientleman; I could not keep up a conversation with hie, and he knew only about twenty of mine It was evident he was a man of superior abilities to hbred, and had always been known to Mr Richards as a proud and honourable old fellow He was, e family, nast the aboriginal tribes of this part of Australia, all of whoe ain, and after; not from any unkindness on my part, for my readers will see ere the best of friends the whole tiether On this little excursion it was very a to watch old Jimmy on horseback, and to notice the look of blank ast the sandhills; the way he excused hiht to this little spot was also very ingenuous In the first place he said, ”Notfello; not mine like em pony”--the na long time, only when I am boy” Whereby he intended to i perfectly straight to the place However, we got there all right, although I found it to be useless When asked concerning the country to the north, he declared it was cockata; the country to the as also cockata, the dreaded na to carry a nameless undefined horror with it The term of cockata blacks is applied by the Fowler's Bay natives to all other tribes of aboriginals in the country inland froh when Fowler's Bay country was first settled by the whites these natives attacked and killed several of the invaders, they always lived in terror of their enemies to the north, and any atrocity that was committed by themselves, either cannibalism, theft, or murder, was always put down to the account of the cockatas

Occasionally a inals would ht would carry off wos, spears, shi+elds, coola water--and they usually killed several of thefor about an hour, we remounted our horses and returned to the ca for a change in the weather, as the heat was now very great and the country in the neighbourhood of theand forh and scrubby red sandhills, and it was altogether so unpleasing a locality that I abandoned the idea of pushi+ng to the north, to discover whether any other waters could be found in that direction, for the present, and postponed the attempt until I should return to this depot en route for Perth, with the whole ofto make my way now to the eastwards in order to reach Beltana by a route previously untravelled

Upon the , all the horses were away--indeed, as I have said before, there was nothing for them to eat at this place, and they always raet away froh those more sensible ani black fellows and old Jiet the horses, while old Ji care of the ca blacks were sent out very early for the horses, whilst the other and old Jiht be required at the ca was hot and oppressive, we sat as co; by twelve o'clock no signs of black boys or horses had ave old Jier black left the camp with a bit of a bundle under his shi+rt and a canvas water-bag; I and some of the others watched whither he went, and to our surprise we found that he was taking food and water to the other two boys, who should have been away after the horses, but were quietly enca bush within a quarter of a mile of us and had never been after the horses at all Of course ere very indignant, and were going to punish the, when one of the theo for the horses because they were too much afraid of the cockata blacks, and unless we sent old Jiht of the camp This showed the state of superstition and fear in which these people live Indeed, I believe if the whole Fowler's Bay tribes were all encaether in one mob round their own fires, in their own country, and any one ran into the ca the to think that the horses had got soI could do was to send a white man, and Jimmy, with these boys to find the absent animals Mr

Roberts volunteered, and had to ca day, with only about a third of the mob The next day all were found but three--one was a police horse of Mr

Richards's, which was never seen after, and two colts of mine which found their way back to, and were eventually recovered at, Fowler's Bay by Mr Roberts While encamped here we found Youldeh to be a fearful place, the ants, flies, and heat being each intolerable We were at the bottom of a sandy funnel, into which the fiery bea rays, and the radiation of heat from the sandy country around made it all the hotter Not a breath of air could be had as we lay or sat panting in the shade we had erected with our tarpaulins There was no view for more than a hundred yards anywhere, unless one climbed to the top of a sandhill, and then other sandhills all round only were to be seen The position of this place I found to be in latitude 30 degrees 24' 10” and approxirees 46' On the 23rd of March Mr Murray, Ji the ca confabulation with Jimmy--at least Mr Murray had, and he interpreted the old fellow's remarks to -places in it, for so a kind of map on the sand, he put down severalnain, and Wynbring; of these he said Pylebung and Wynbring were the best waters By his account they all lay due east from hence, and they appeared to be the most wonderful places in the world He said he had not visited any of these places since he was a little boy with his mother, and it appeared his ed to her country, but that she had subsequently become the wife of a Fowler's Bay native, who had taken her and her little Jimmy away out of that part of the country, therefore he had not been there since He said that Pylebung was a water that stood up high, and that cockata black fellows had made it ooden shovels This account certainly excitedwhich could approximate to Jimmy's description; he also said it wasone, whichand Whitegin, he said, were rock-holes, but Wynbring, the farthest water he knew, according to his account was so He said it was a , and a well, all in one, and that it was distant about six sleeps fro, as Ji e considered to be about 120whatever of the country, and I think he had a latent idea in hisbeyond it The result of our intervieas, that I determined to send all the party back to Fowler's Bay, except one white man and old Jimmy, also all the horses except three, and to start with this s day I selected Peter Nicholls to acco-point of water at the ca its altitude above the sea 509 feet The sandhills were about 100 feet high on the average

The two camels and the calf, were sent to me by Sir Thomas Elder, frohan named Saleh Mahomet, who returned to, and met me at, Beltana, by the ordinary way of travellers There was only a riding-saddle for the cow, the bull having coe-saddle for him, and I venture to assert that 999,999 people out of every million would rather be excused the task In this work I was ably seconded by Mr Richards, who did , one of the owners and h he supplied me in profusion with every other requisite, would not let me have the size of iron I wished, and I had to take what I could get, he thinking it the right size; and unfortunately that which I got for the saddle-trees was not stout enough, and, although in other respects the saddle was a brilliant success, though han's saddle, when the animal was loaded, the weakness of the iron made it continually widen, and in consequence the iron pressed down on thecreature's body and hurt him severely

We frequently had to stop, take his load and saddle off and bend the iron closer together again, so as to preserve some semblance of an arch or rather two arches over his back, one before and one behind his huh this operation ere afraid the iron would give, and snap in half with our pressure, and so it would have done but that the fiery rays of the sun kept it al heat This and the nose ropes and buttons getting so often broken, together withnew buttons fro delays

On the 24th of March, 1875, we bade good-bye to the friends that had accompanied us to this place, and who all started to return to the bay the sauide, the two camels and calf, and three horses, I turned my back upon the Youldeh camp, somewhat late in the day Nicholls rode the old cow, Ji a load of water Two of these horses were the pick of the whole htened at the camels, and it was almost impossible to sit my horse Chester when the ca the water followed the two riding-horses, but towards dusk he got frightened and bolted away into the scrubs, load of water and all

We had only come seven miles that afternoon, and it was our first practical acquaintance with camels; Jimmy and I had continually to wait till Nicholls and the camels, made their appearance, and whenever Nicholls cae with thee for him at all If he beat her she would lie down, yell, squall, spit, and roll over on her saddle, and behave in such aabout ca to die The sandhills were oppressively steep, and the old wretch perspired to such a degree, and altogether becaan to think cained

The bull, Mustara, behaved much better He was a ; but the Lord help any one ould try to kiss the old cow, for she would cover them all over with--well, ill call it spittle, but it is worse than that

The calf would kiss also when caught, but did not care to be caught too often Mustara had a good heavy load--he followed the coithout being fastened; the calf, with great cunning, not relishi+ng the idea of leaving Youldeh, would persistently stay behind and try and induce his o on; in this he partially succeeded, for by dusk, just as I found I had lost the pack-horse with the water, and aiting till Nicholls, as following our horse tracks, came up to us, we had travelled at no better speed than ahorses were so restless that I was co away in the darkness to endeavour to find the uided now by the glare of a large fire of a Mus conditor's nest which old Jione about two hours; thus our first night's bivouac was not a pleasant one There was nothing that the horses would eat, and if they had been let go, even in hobbles, in all probability we should never have seen theain Old Jimmy returned after a fruitless search for the absent horse The camels would not feed, but lay down in a sulky fit, the two horses continually snorting and endeavouring to break away; and thus the night was passing ae heard the tinkle of a bell--the horse we had lost having a bell on his neck--and Jih the darkness and scrubs in the direction it proceeded frouide them, not that old Jimmy required such artificial aid, but to save ti horse When this animal took it into his head to bolt off he was out of earshot in no tis, and returned of his own accord to where he had left his ain, and the water he carried

The nextthe old guide Jimmy, ent in a south-east direction towards the first watering place that he knew, and which he said was called Chi

Many times before we reached this place the old fellow see about a hummocks of red sand covered with dense scrubs and the universal spinifex--he ed to drop down upon it, after we had travelled about thirtyconsisted of a s the Acacia aneura; here a few bare red granite rocks were exposed to view In a crevice between two of these Ji out, to contain only three buckets of a filthy black fluid that old Ji we did not knohat it was Poor old chap, he couldn't explain how angry he was, but he ed to stammer out, ”White fellow--fool; pony drink 'em” The day was excessively hot, the therrees in the shade The horses or ponies, as universally called at Fowler's Bay, drank the dirty water with avidity It was early in the day e arrived, and so soon as the water was taken, we pushed on towards the next place, Pylebung At Youldeh our guide had so excited my curiosity about this place, that I was most anxious to reach it Jiht of the 26th March, just as it was getting dark and having left Chi twenty-five a country, the bushes being so thick that we had great difficulty in forcing our way through it in the dark Our guide seely uncertain, and I could see by the stars that inding about to all points of the compass At last old Ji ought to be, but it was not; and here, he said, pointing to the ground, was to be our wurley, or caht

When I questioned him, and asked where the water was, he only replied, which way? This question I was altogether unable to answer, and I was not in a very ahtful country of dense scrubs all day in parching thirst and broiling heat So I told Nicholls to unpack the camels while I unsaddled the horses All the animals seemed over-powered with lassitude and exhaustion; the camels immediately lay down, and the horses stood disconsolately close to theer terrified at their proxiround and lay down, and then we discovered that old Jiiven us the slip in the dark We had been lying down some time when the old fellow returned, and in the e told us he had found the water; it was, he said, ”big one, watta, an to describe it, or try to do so, in the firelight, on the ground; he kept saying, ”big one, watta--big one, watta--watta go that atta go this way, and watta go that way, and watta go this way,” turning hiht itto describe However, we got the camels and horses resaddled and packed, and took theh sandhills that surrounded us, and we soon ee white clay-pan, or bare patch of white clay soil, glistening in theobject--so like the wall of an old house or a ruined chi,that it was a circular wall or dament open to the south to admit and retain the rain-water that occasionally flows over the flat into this artificial receptacle

In spite of old Jimmy's asseverations, there was only sufficient water to last one or two days, and what there as very thick and whitish-coloured The six aniradually diht before our eyes; the caainst one another while they drank

This wall, or dainals, is the first piece of work of art or usefulness that I had ever seen in all my travels in Australia; and if I had only heard of it, I should seriously have reflected upon the credibility of enuity, on the part of Australian natives, applied to building, or the storage of water, have previously beenone now This piece of o feet thick on the top of the wall, twenty yards in the length of its sweep, and at the bottoed, the embankment was nearly five feet thick The clay of which this da out of the hole in which the water lay, with small native wooden shovels, and piled up to its present diular monument of native industry, there are a few hundred acres of very pretty country, beautifully grassed and orna picturesquely apart The spot lies in a basin or hollow, and is surrounded in all directions by scrubs and rolling sandhills Hoe got to it I can scarcely tell, as our guide kept constantly changing his course, so that the compass was of little or no use, and it was only by the sextant I could discover our whereabouts; by it I found we had corees east, we being now in latitude 30 degrees 43' and longitude 132 degrees 44'

There was so little water here that I was unable to re which the therrees in the shade

To the eastward of this darowing upon it, about a quarter of a mile away A number of stones of a calcareous nature were scattered about on it; on going up this hill the day we rested the animals here, I was surprised to find a broad path had been cleared ast the stones for so the terminal points At the foot of each tree at the end of the path the largest stones were heaped; the path was indented with the tras of many natives'

feet, and I felt sure that it was one of those places where the ion perform inhuman mutilations upon the youths and maidens of their tribe I questioned old Jimmy about these matters, but he was like all others of his race, hile ad the facts, protest that they, individually, have never officiated at such doings

Upon leaving Pylebung Ji-place, and said it lay nearly east from here; but I found ent nearly north-east to reach it; this we did in seventeen , as usual, all sandhills and scrub Mowling consisted of a sranite; in these were two small holes, both as dry as the surface of the rocks in their vicinity On our route frole bullock; he also had found his way to Mowling, and probably left it howling; but it must have been soood deal south of east, and we arrived at another exposure of granite rocks in the dense scrubs This place Ji There was a small crevice between the rounded boulders of rock, which held barely sufficient water for the three horses, the ca us all the afternoon, and appeared very thirsty They kept co our canvas bucket and tin utensils about with their lips, and I found the cunning of a caet water at the camp far exceeded that of any horse

There were a few dozen acres of pretty ground here with good grass and herbage on it We had a great deal of trouble to-day in getting the caot itself entangled in its mother's nose-rope, and as we did not then understand the ement of camels, and how their nose-ropes should be adjusted, we could not prevent the little brute froe of the poor old cow's nose; this not only caused the anihtful pain, butthan before The agony the poor creature suffered fro, as after this accident they entered her nostrils in such nuh and snort until she had ejected a great quantity of blood and flies from her nose

For the last few miles we had not been annoyed by quite so much spinifex as usual, but the vast amount of dead wood and underbrush was very detriress of the ca their feet very high, though having the power, they learn it in tiled with the dead sticks, which made them very sore