Part 24 (1/2)

shi+ps of the desert

Reflections at night

Death or Water

The Hermit Hill

Black shepherds and shepherdesses

The Finniss Springs

Victims to the bush

Footprints on the sands of time

Alec Ross

Reach Beltana

On the 2nd April we departed fro our three horses, the two ca was as hot as fire; atsaddled and packed them, we left the place behind us On the two camels we carried asnearly fifty gallons The horses were now on more friendly terms with them, so that they could be led by a person on horseback Old Jiuide, was not per fell off the camels'

saddles I rode in advance, on my best horse Chester, a fine, well-set chestnut cob, a horse I was very fond of, as he had proved hirey horse called Forood one Jimmy was mounted on an old black horse, that was a fine ambler, the one that bolted aith the load of water the first night we started from Youldeh He had not stood the journey from Youldeh at all well; the other tere quite fresh and hearty e left Wynbring

By the evening of the 2nd we had made only twenty-two round rose into sandhills so steep and high, that all our animals were in a perfect lather of sweat The caht, where ere co for the horses to eat, so the poor brutes had to be tied up, lest they should ra There was plenty of food for the camels, as they could eat the leaves of some of the bushes, but they were too sulky to eat because they were tied up The bull continually bit his nose-rope through, andwith hiet away too

The horses got frightened, and were snorting and juht The spot ere in was a hollow, between two high sandhills, and not a breath of air relieved us from the oppression of the atmosphere Peter Nicholls and I were in a state of thirst and perspiration the whole night, running about after the ca away If the cow had got loose, we could not have prevented the caratified than at the appearance of the next 's dawn, as it enabled us to move away froh this region at night, even by ht; we should have lost our eyes upon the sticks and branches of the direful scrubs if we had atte our skin and clothes to pieces also Starting at earliest dawn, and traversing forth reached the foot of thefor, in twenty-threeit was theno water or places that could hold it The elevation of this e country, and over 2000 feet above the sea The country visible from its summit was still enveloped in dense scrubs in every direction, except on a bearing a few degrees north of east, where soes appeared I rode my horse Chester many miles over the wretched stony slopes at the foot of this mountain, and tied hiullies and crevices innumerable, but no water rewarded my efforts, and it was very evident that what the old black fellow Wynbring To waterless was only too true After wasting several hours in a fruitless search for water, we left the wretched es I had seen from its summit They appeared to be about forty-five miles away As it was so late in the day e left the ain overtook us, and we had to enca coave in from the heat and thirst and fearful nature of the country ere traversing, having co We could neither lead, ride, nor drive hiiven each horse some water from the supply the camels carried, e reached the ht, as the heavy sandhills had so exhausted the received more than the others Now he lay down and stretched out his liony of thirst and exhaustion I was loth to shoot the poor old creature, and I also did not like the idea of leaving hiht perhaps if I left hiht at his own pace, and thus return to Wynbring, although I also knew froer and Darkie, it wasin the fork of a sandal-wood-tree, not the sandal-wood of co sand, we moved away Of course he was never seen or heard of after

That night we encaes, at a place where there was a little dry grass, and where both caht on the following ht, the horse-bells indicating that those ani early in the night Old Ji in the world but an Australian aboriginal, and that a half or wholly wild one, could track a camel on some surfaces, for where there is any clayey soil, the creature leaves no round than an ant--black children often a ants--and to follow such ht, was marvellous Occasionally they would leave some marks that no one could round; but for h they round and had never put their feet to the earth at all By the tiht appeared, old Jimmy had tracked theardless of any tracks at all, walking at such a pace, that I could only keep up with hith at about six st so for water The old cohich was the only riding ca to ride her without a saddle or a pad of soot, so we took it in turns to ride the bull, and he made many attempts to shake us off; but as he had soon by that as we sat behind it It was necessary for whoever alking to lead him by his nose-rope, or he would have bolted away and rubbed his encuainst a tree, or else rolled on it In consequence of the caain started, the two horses looking fearfully hollow and bad Thenow a horse a piece to ride, and the water which one ca been drank by the aniain, both she and the bull beingthan e started froreat difficulty ith the nose-ropes; the calf persisted in getting in front of itsher nose-rope round his neck, also in placing itself right in between the fore-legs of the bull This would make him stop, pull back and break his rope, or else the button would tear through the nose; this caused detention a dozen ti ani itnohen caught, and evidently suffered greatly froes in seven miles from where we had ca We could find no water at these ridges, as there were no places that could hold it Here we may be said to have entered on a piece of open country, and as it was apparently a change for the better frolad to see it, especially as we hoped to obtain water on it Our horses were now in a terrible state of thirst, for the heat was great, and the region we had traversed was dreadfully severe, and though they had each been given soht with us, yet we could not afford anything like enough to satisfy therees north of east; Mount Finke, behind us, bore 20 degrees south of west I pushed on now for the hill in advance, as it was nearly on the route I desired to travel The country being open, we ht, ere upon its su about thirty es we had left, a nu This hill was as dry and waterless as the es, we had left behind us in the scrubs Dry salt lagoons lay scattered about in nearly all directions, glittering with their saline encrustations, as the sun's rays flashed upon the isolated hills were seen; in all other directions the horizon appeared gloomy in the extreme We had now come 120 miles from water, and the supply we had started as alive us none, and we had but one, of two courses to pursue, either to advance still further into this terrible region, or endeavour to retreat to Wynbring No doubt the caet back alive, but ourselves and the horses could never have recrossed the frightful bed of rolling sand-mounds, that intervened between us and the water we had left My poor old black coion, and also at what he consideredinto it at all Peter Nicholls, I was glad to find, was in good spirits, and gradually changing his opinions with regard to the powers and value of the cah they had laboured over the hideous sandhills, laden with the priceless fluid for the benefit of the horses, and it was quite evident the latter could not er live, in such a desert, whilst the former were now far more docile and obedient to us than e started Whenever the horses were given any water, we had to tie the camels up at some distance The expression in these ani was extraordinary; they see to speak, and had they done so, I knoell they would have said, ”You give those useless little pigmies the water that cannot save them, and you deny it to us, who have carried it, and will yet be your only saviours in the end” After we had fruitlessly searched here for water, having wasted several hours, we left this wretched hill, and I continued steering upon the sarees east, as that bearing would bring me to the north-western extremity of Lake Torrens, still distant over 120 et no water, as none is known to exist where we should touch upon its shores Thus ere, after co, still nearly 200 s, the nearest water that I knew It was now a matter of life and death; could we reach the Finniss at all? We could neither remain here, nor should we survive if we attempted to retreat; to advance was our only chance of escape fro waste in which ere almost entombed; we therefore moved onwards, as fast and as far as we could

On the followingfor the different sounds of the bells on the anihten up the cae sound of the quacking of a wild duck sht had evidently attracted the creature, which probably thought it was the flashi+ng of water, as it flen close to my face, and al its error, it wheeled away upon its uni why this denizen of the air and water, should be sojourning around the waterless encampment of such hapless travellers as we The appearance of such a bird raised hbourhood of soht would reveal to us the element which alone could save us and our unfortunate animals from death But, alas! how many human hopes and aspirations are continually doos eternal in the huy, all life, and all success would be at an end, as then we should know that most of our efforts are futile, whereas noe hope they may attain complete fruition Yet, on the other hand, we learn that the fruit of dreaion of scrubs as bad and as dense as those I hoped and thought, I had left behindour waterless encampment, we continued our journey, ao no farther; for soreatest difficulty in forcing hi, but noas coony of thirst It was useless to waste time over the unfortunate creature; it was quite iain, so in asped spash his frame, and we left him dead in the lonely spot

We had now no object but to keep pushi+ng on; our supply of water was all but gone, and ere in the last stage of thirst and wretchedness By the night of that day we had reached a place 168 , and in all that distance not a drop of water had been found We had one unfortunate horse left, the grey called For and on as little water as I aion On the followingthe poor beast ca after the caazing vacantly at the fire; a thought seemed to strike him that it ater, and he put his mouth down into the flames This idea seee of thirst We were choking with thirst ourselves, but we agreed to sacrifice a s stock of water for this unfortunate last victiave hi he ht be found; but vain was the hope and vain the gift, for the creature that had held up so long and so well, sed up the last little draught we gave, fell down and rolled and shi+vered in agony, as Chester had done, and he died and was at rest A singular thing about this horse was that his eyes had sunk into his head until they were all but hidden For ion and in such a predicaly have followed him into the future

The celebrated Sir Thomas Mitchell, one of Australia's early explorers, in one of his journeys, after finding a -settled abodes of civilisation, , a verse of which says:

”A steede, a steede of matchless speede, A sworde of metal keane; All else to noble mindes is drosse; All else on earthe is ht had he been in s of thirst himself, his ”sworde of metal keane” a useless encu where the next ht be; he would have to admit that the wonderful beasts which now alone remained to us were by nocreatures, which were still alive, had tasted no water since leaving Wynbring, and, though the horses were dead and gone, stood up with undi to be as well able now to continue on and traverse this wide-spread desert as when they left the last oasis behind We had nothing now to depend upon but our two ”shi+ps of the desert,” which ere only just beginning to understand I had been a firument with Nicholls about them; his opinion had now entirely altered At Youldeh he had called thely, useless, lazy brutes, that were not to be compared to horses for a reeable and companionable than ever the horses had been

When Jily at the prostrate form of the dead horse; they kneeled down close beside it and received their loads, now indeed light enough, and ent off again into the scrubs, riding and walking by turns, our lives entirely depending on the ca upon soot thes of thirst there can be no doubt--and what animal can suffer thirst like a caht to the cas, tin pannikins, and any other vessel that ever had contained water

The days of toil, the nights of agony and feverish unrest, that I spent upon this journey I can never forget After struggling through the dense scrubs all day ere coht It was seldom noe spoke to one another, ere too thirsty and ith lassitude to converse, and ht after the last horse died, e had come nearly 200 e, although I aloomy-minded of the hureat measure sympathetic with the physical condition of the body If the body is weak froue, the brain and hts of a wanderer in such a desolate region as this, weary with a ht until dark, who at last sinks upon the heated ground to watch and wait until the blazing sunlight of another day, perhaps,him to some place of rest, cannot be otherwise than of a mournful kind The mind is forced back upon itself, and becohts which wander through the vastness of the star-bespangled spheres; for here, the only things to see, the only things to love, and upon which the eye ather so bands of brilliant stars shi+ning in the azure vault of heaven Froazed helplessly but rapturously upon the at the enorhts of past, present, and future existencies, and of how all that is earthly fadeth away But can that be the case with our world itself, with the sun froht and life, or with the starry splendours of the worlds beyond the sun? Will they, can they, ever fade? They are not spiritual; celestial still we call them, but they are material all, in form and nature We are both; yet weto decide which of the two holds theand thread of life? Certainly we know that the body decays, and even the paths of glory lead but to the grave; but we also know that the ed become almost idiotic in their second childhood; and if the body is to rise again, how is poor huerm of immortality? Philosophies and speculations upon the future have been subjects of the deepest thought for the highest h creeds have risen and sunk, and old religions and philosophies have passed away, the dubiousand harp upon the theme of what can be the Great Beyond The various creeds, of the many different nations of the earth induce the notions of heaven, but all and each appear agreed upon the point that up into the stars alone their hoped-for heaven is to be found; and if all do not, in this agree, still there are sos, above the petty disputes of differing creeds, and the vague promises they hold out to their votaries, who behold, in the firhty and mysterious objects for veneration and love

These are the gorgeous constellations set thick with starry ge orbs of densely crowded spheres, the systems beyond systems, clusters beyond clusters, and universes beyond universes, all brilliantly glittering with various coloured light, all wheeling and swaying, floating and circling round some distant, unknown, motive, centre-point, in the pauselessti upon the enthralled inarywish to kno cos about We are led to suppose as our own ressively improve from a state of infancy to a certain-point, so it is with all things we see in nature; but the inal production of life and matter is beyond the powers of man to discover Therefore, we look forith anxiety and suspense, hope, love, and fear to a future tih the portals of the valley of death, from this existence, we shall enjoy life after life, in new body, after new body, passing through new sphere, after new sphere, arriving nearer and nearer to the fountain-head of all perfection, the divinely great Alht and life, of hope and love

These were soht; the stars that in their constellations had occupied the zenith, now have passed the horizon's verge; other and fresh glittering bands now occupy their forlimmer in the east, and just as I could have fallen into the trance of sleep, it was tiain to wander on, so soon as our anihth day of continued travel froone, and ere yet s I had been coid and inadequate econo our whole march; e left the camp where the last horse died very little over three pints remained; ere all very bad, old Jimmy was nearly dead At about four o'clock in the afternoon we came to a place where there was a considerable fall into a hollow, here was some bare clay--in fact it was an enormous clay-pan, or miniature lake-bed; the surface was perfectly dry, but in a small drain or channel, dohich water could descend in ti of Providence I found a supply of yelloater

Nicholls had previously got strangely excited--in fact the poor felloas light-headed from thirst, and at one place where there was no water he threw up his hat and yelled out ”Water, water!” he walking a little in advance; we had really passed the spot where the water was, but when Nicholls gave the false information I jurievously disappointed; but as I went along I caught sight of a whitish light through thea word for fear of fresh disappointment, I walked towards what I had seen; Nicholls and Jimmy, who both seemed dazed, went on with the camels

What I had seen, was a small sheet of very white water, and I could not resist the temptation to drink before I went after theone on several hundred yards; when I called to the up my hat, they were so stupid with thirst, and disappoint until I took the ca to my knees, which were covered with yellow mud, simply said ”water”; then, when I led the camels to the place, down these poor felloent on their knees, in the ain knelt down and drank, and drank Oh, dear reader, if you have never suffered thirst you can for, I couldn't have believed that even thirsty camels could have sed such enorhtful to watch the poor creatures visibly swelling before our eyes I aallons of water, for even after the first drink, e took their saddles off at the ca for nearly an hour

We had ht hth day, e ca it 220 miles in all I could not sufficiently admire and praise the wonderful powers of these extraordinary, and tothe ti the weather had been very hot and oppressive, the therrees in the shade e rested for an hour in the middle of the day, but that was not the hottest ti period The country we had traversed was a htful desert, yet day after day our noble ca slowly but surely on, with undi carried water for their unfortunate co the of thirst; still theyus by turns, and all the reht us to water at last We had yet over eighty miles to travel to reach the Finniss, and had we not found water I aot there The walking in turns over this dreadful region erous at any ti, for he could have drank a couple of gallons at any tireatest ease For some miles before we found the water the country had beco lower and well grassed, with clay flats between We also passed a nu on theion, as before I found the water I noticed that many of the deeper clay channels were only recently dry; when I say deeper, I mean fro about as e round the channel where I found the water were beautifully green