Part 27 (1/2)

The usual anxiety at the camp was the question of water supply; I had found so little where I had been, and the water here was failing rapidly every day Had it not been for last night's rain, we should be in a great difficulty this ot our supply replenished by the light rain, and for the moment all ell; but it did not follow that because it rained here it must also rain at the little dam 160 miles away Yet I decided to take the whole party to it, and as, by the blessing of Providence,had sufficient water for the purpose, to carry as much as we possibly could, so that if no rain had fallen at the daive the ca on west, and trust to fate, or fortune, or chance, or Providence, or whatever it ust, having filled up everything that could hold a drop of water, we departed fro certainly 160 miles of desert without water to traverse, and perhaps none to be found at the end

Now, having everything ready, and watered our camels, we folded our tents like the Arabs, and as silently stole away In consequence of having to carry soOoldabinna were enorly hot just as we began our journey The four camels which Alec Ross and I had out with us looked wretched objects beside theirat Ooldabinna, and were now in excellent condition; our unfortunates, on the contrary, had been travelling for seventeen days at the rate of twenty-three miles per day, with only one drink of water in the interval These four were certainly excellent ani cow Reechy I had a splendid gelding, which I nah he was only called the Pearl He was a beautiful white ca bull that afterwards beca cah these wretched scrubs, as the record of ”each dreary to-morrow but repeats the dull tale of to-day” But I e over horses in these dense wildernesses, for the former are so tall that their loads areupper branches of the low trees of which these scrubs are usually coround have to be dragged through the stouter and stronger lower lile file, and where the leading careat ie these scrubs was as follows:--Saleh on his riding gelding, the h Saleh was always beating or swearing at him in Hindostanee, led the whole caravan, which was divided into three separate lots; at every sixth there was a break, and one of the party rode ahead of the next six, and so on Thehen the scrubs permitted, the steers, he would walk; then a uide Saleh, who led the baggage ht Alec Ross, and we took an hour about, at a time Immediately behind Saleh came three bull caallons These used to crash and se was much clearer after the water-beds, boxes, etc, was encased in huge leather bags, except one cow's load; this, with the bags of flour on two other careen hide The fortunate rider at the extreroove to ride in This last place was the privilege of the steersony was up After the caravan had forced its way through this forest prienerally left an open serpentine line about six feet above the ground, through the trees, and when a person was on this line they could see that soround was a narrower line about two feet wide, and sometimes as much as a foot deep, where one animal after another had stepped In my former journals I mentioned that the spinifex wounded the horses' feet, and disfigured their coronets, it also used to take a good deal of hair off soh it did not sees up to three feet froht and shi+ny as a newly polished boot

The camels' hair was much finer than that of the horses', but their skin was s were punctured and suppurating, the caht as bayonets

What breakfast we had was always taken very early, before it was light enough to track the camels; then, while some of the party went after them, the others' duty was to have all the saddles and packs ready for instant loading Our shortest record of leaving a caround) was half an hour froht, but it usually took the best part of an hour before a clearance could be effected Upon leaving Ooldabinna we had our westerly tracks to follow; this made the road easier At the ninety-lad to find them all safe, and in consequence of the shade we had put over them, there had been no loss of water froht from Ooldabinna ell on our way towards the little da come 120 miles The heat had been very oppressive At dusk of that day so nearly all night On the seventh day, the 30th of August, there was every appearance of wet setting in I was very thankful, for now I felt sure we should find more water in the little dam than when I left it We quietly ensconced ourselves under our tents in the ht be said to have enjoyed a holiday as a respite and repose, in contrast to our usual perpetual round was far too porous to hold any surface water, and had our caht upon so ht, we could now give theetting ht of the 29th one of our best cow-camels calved

Unfortunately the animal strained herself so severely in one of her hips, or other part of her hind legs, that she could not rise froround She seemed also paralysed with cold Her little mite of a calf had to be killed Wedown, and we fed and watered her--at least we offered her food and water, but she was in too great pain to eat Camel calves are, in proportion to their inable I delayed here an additional day on the poor creature's account, but all our efforts to raise her proved unsuccessful I could not leave the poor duround to die by inches slowly, by famine, and alone, so I in mercy shot her just before we left the place, and left her dead alongside the progeny that she had brought to life in such a wilderness, only at the expense of her own She had been Mr Tietkens's hack, and one of our best riding cao to reach the dam, and as all our water had been consuht enough On the 3rd of Septehted to find that not only had the da A little water was actually visible in the lake-bed alongside of it, at the southern end, but it was unfit for drinking

The little reservoir had now six feet of water in it; there was sufficient for all my expected requirements The carass was reen and luxuriant than ever, and to my eyes it now appeared a far enta-coloured vetch, the scarlet desert-pea, and nuuminous plants, bushes, and trees, of which the ca informed me that he had seen two or three natives from the spot at which we pitched our tents, but I saw none, and they never returned while ere in occupation of their property This would be considered a pretty spot anywhere, but co suddenly on it from the dull and so In the background to the south were sorew some scattered casuarina of the black oak kind, which is a different variety froant or shady a tree as, the finer desert oak, which usually grows in ions I have not as yet seen any of thereen and open space with scrubs standing back, and the white lake-bed in the centre The little daround where rain-water from the foot of some of the sandhills could run into the lake; and here the natives hadthe water, having dug out the tank in the wrong place, at least not in the best position for catching the rain-water I felt sure there was to be a waterless track beyond, so I stayed at this agreeable place for a week, in order to recruit the camels, andthis interval of repose we had continued oppressive weather, the therrees every afternoon, but the nights were agreeably cool, if not cold We had generally very cloudy s; the flies were particularly numerous and troublesome, and I became convinced that any further travel to the ould have to be carried on under very unfavourable circurees 19'

4”, and longitude 128 degrees 38' 16”, showing that we had crossed the boundary line between the two colonies of South and Western Australia, the 129th meridian I therefore called this the Boundary Dam It rees of longitude--that is to say, for 450the intervening period between the 9th of June, to the 3rd of September, entirely enveloped in dense scrubs, and I may say that very few if any explorers have ever before had such a region to traverse I had ed to penetrate this country up to the present point, and it was not to be wondered at if we all ardently longed for a change Even a bare, boundless expanse of desert sand would be welcomed as an alternative to the dark and dreary scrubs that surrounded us However, it appeared evident tobut scrubs for hundreds of miles from the east, and had found no water of any size whatever in all the distance I had yet come, that no waters really existed in this country, except an occasional native well or native dam, and those only at considerable distances apart

Concluding this to be the case, andthat the expedition should reach the city of Perth, I decided there was only one way to accoo thither, at any risk, and trust to Providence for an occasional supply of water here and there in the intermediate distance I desired to ustus Church there, but my chart showed that Mount Churchman had been visited by two or three other travellers since that date, and it was presumable that water did permanently exist there

The hill was, however, distant froht line, and too far away for it to be possible we could reach it unless we should discover soood supply of water in casks, water-beds and bags; and to enable me to carry this I had done aith various articles, and htening theht of water At the end of a week I was tired of the listless life at the careater disposition to do so now than e arrived, so I deterer on her account The animals had done remarkably well here, as the feed was so excellent The water that had been lying in the bed of the lake e arrived had now dried up, and the quantity taken by ourselves and the ca very considerably upon its store--a plain intimation to us that it would soon become exhausted, and that for the sustenance of life more must be procured Where the next favoured spot would be found, who could tell? The last water we had ht be double that distance Having considered all these matters, I informed my officers and ht of retreat, no ht be; that it was a h or die in the scrubs I added that if any more than one of the party desired to retreat, I would provide them with rations and camels, when they could either return to Fowler's Bay by the e had come, or descend to Eucla Station on the coast, which lay south nearly 170 miles distant

I represented that ere probably in the worst desert upon the face of the earth, but that fact should give us all theit We were surrounded on all sides by dense scrubs, and the sooner we forced our way out of the to do, and I believe very few people would or could rush madly into a totally unknoilderness, where the nearest knoater was 650 o to Perth or die in the attempt, and I inspired the whole of my party with my own enthusiasm

One and all declared that they would live or die withto this place had never co any other waters in this region Owing to the difficulty of holding conversation ild tribes, it is highly probable that if we had ot no information of value from them When wild natives can be induced to approach and speak to the first travellers who trespass on their domains, they simply repeat, as well as they can, every word and action of the whites; this beco that it is better to be without theet to be enerally become more familiar, and want to see if white people are white all over, and to satisfy their curiosity in ion evidently does not support a very nuame in it I have never visited any part of Australia so devoid of ani was ready, and I departed, declaring that:--

”Though the scrubs h the desert s that shall be won”

Mounting my little fairy camel Reechy, I ”whispered to her ard, ard, and with speed she darted onward” The e from the quite sufficiently hot weather we had lately had, although I did not expect rain We had no notion of how far we ht elapse before we came to any other water, but we left our friendly little da to discover not only water, but soraphical features than we had as yet encountered I had set my own and all my companions' lives upon a cast, and will stand the hazard of the die, and Iinto the new unknown, the greatest desire and eagerness for our atte the depot I had determined to travel on a course that would enable me to reach the 30th parallel of latitude at about its intersection with the 125th ht it probable the scrubs ht terminate sooner in that direction than in oneof south 76 degrees west; this left the line of salt lakes Alec Ross and I had forht or northwards of us Immediately after the start we entered thick scrubs as usual; they were a and sandal-wood, not of coe of two small salt depressions at six and nine miles; at ten miles ere overtaken by a shower of rain, and at eleven htly, we enca we saved sufficient water bythe night it also rained at intervals, and we collected a lot of water and put it into a large canvas trough used for watering the camels when they cannot reach the water thehs, which held sufficient water for them all when at a watered cae; then they required to be filled three or four ti, however, as we had but just left the depot, the camels would not drink, and as all our vessels were full, the water in the trough had to be poured out upon the ground as a libation to the Fates In consequence of having to dry a nuet away until pasttwo ser one, where there was good herbage This we took advantage of, and enca from which they cannot extractwithout water The recent rain had left some sheets of water in the lake-bed at various places, but they were all as salt as brine--in fact brine itself

The country we passed through to-day was entirely scrubs, except where the salt basins intervened, and nothing but scrubs could be seen ahead, or indeed in any other direction The latitude of the carees 24' 8”, and it enty-two miles from the dam We continued our march and proceeded still upon the sa By the fifth night of our travels we had met no water or any places that could hold it, and apparently we had left all the salt basins behind Up to this point we had been continually in dense scrubs, but here the country becaenerally took the places of the mallee and the casuarinas; the spinifex disappeared, and real grass grew in its place I was in hopes of finding water if we should debouch upon a plain, or perhaps discover soht have hidden from us On the sixth day of ourvery well grassed It also had several kinds of salsolaceous bushes upon it; these furnish excellent fodder plants for all herbivorous ani sandcountry; the camels' feet left scarcely any irass and crushed plants trodden to earth by our heavy-weighing shi+ps, could our trail now be followed

The plain appeared to extend a great distance all around us A solemn stillness pervaded the atmosphere; nobody spoke much above a whisper

Onceso one of theht the cow, for which we had delayed there, calved, but her bull-calf had to be destroyed, as we could not delay for it on the ood condition, went off her h nothing had occurred On the eighth we had cold fowl for breakfast, with a modicum of water On the ninth and tenth days of our an to think ere more liable to die for want of water on them than in the dense and hideous scrubs we had been so anxious to leave behind Although the region noas all a plain, no views of any extent could be obtained, as the country still rolled on in endless undulations at various distances apart, just as in the scrubs It was evident that the regions ere traversing were utterly waterless, and in all the distance we had coe It was totally uninhabited by either lewas to be seen, and we seeion utterly unknown to man, and as utterly forsaken by God We had now co any appeared ht say--with the reen spot needs must be in this aste of e on” But where was the oasis for us? Where the bright region of rest? And nohen days had many of them passed away, and no places had been met where water was, the party presented a sad and sole slowly onward to his toret reached my ears; but I was prepared for more than that Whenever we caaze fixedly into et water?” I pretended to laugh at the idea, and say ”Water? pooh! There's no water in this country, Saleh I didn't come here to find water, I came here to die, and you said you'd come and die too” Then he would ponder awhile, and say: ”I think some camel he die to-morrow, Mr

Gile” I would say: ”No, Saleh, they can't possibly live till to-ht” Then he: ”Oh, Mr

Gile, I think we all die soon now” Then I: ”Oh yes, Saleh, we'll all be dead in a day or two” When he found he couldn't get any satisfaction out of in to pray, and ask o on his knees, and abase hi his head in it for some time

Afterwards he would have a smoke, and I would ask: ”What's the ?” ”Ah, Mr Gile,” was his answer, ”I been pray to ive you a rock-hole to-morrow” I said, ”Why, Saleh, if the rock-hole isn't there already there won't be tiet what you want by praying for it, letriver, that will take us right away to Perth What's the use of a paltry rock-hole?”

Then he said soleious”

On the eleventh day the plains died off, and we re-entered a new bed of scrubs--again consisting of -trees of the saht of the twelfth day froress, we had traversed scrubsof the usual kinds of trees At sundoe descended into a hollow; I thought this would prove the bed of another salt lake, but I found it to be a rain-water basin or very large clay-pan, and although there were signs of the fore about it, were as dry as the desert around Having found a place where water could lodge, I was certainly disappointed at finding none in it, as this showed that no rain whatever had fallen here, where it ood but useless showers i the daetation no rains could possibly have visited this spot for rass hite and dry, and ready to bloith any wind

(ILlustRATION: IN QUEEN VICTORIA'S DESERT)

We had now travelled 242 ht it advisable here to give our lion-hearted camels a day's respite, and to apportion out to them the water that some of them had carried for that purpose By the tih no one had openly uttered the word retreat, all knowing it would be useless, still I was not unassailed by croakings of some of the ravens of the party, who advisedour own and some of the camels' lives, to sacrifice a certain nuive these unfortunates any water at all But I represented that it would be cruel, wrong, and unjust to pursue such a course, and yet expect these neglected ones still to travel on with us; for even in their dejected state soo as far without water as the others would go with; and as for turning the the as they could travel, that was out of the question So I declined all counsel, and declared it should be a case of all sink or all swi which we rested for the purpose, the water was fairly divided aiven to each was only a little over four gallons--about equivalent to four thirown cahty gallons To give away this quantity of water in such a region was like parting with our blood; but it was the creatures' right, and carried expressly for theour which even that small quantity imparted to them, our own lives seemed to obtain a new lease

Unfortunately, the old cohich calved at Youldeh, and whose she-calf is the prettiest and nicest little pet in the world, has begun to fail in heranimal will be unable to hold out to the end of this desert, if indeed it has an end this side of Perth The position of this dry basin is in latitude 30 degrees 7' 3”, and longitude 124 degrees 41' 2” Since reaching the 125th reesfroreatly refreshed and carrying hter loads, we immediately entered dense scrubs, composed as usual of mallee, with its friend the spinifex, black oaks, and nuum-trees It seemed that distance, which lends enchantment to the vieas the only chance for our lives; distance, distance, unknown distance seeoal The country rose i hills of sand, and here I was surprised to find that a number of the melancholy cypress pines ornamented both the sandy hills and the spinifex depressions through and over which ent Here, indeed, sons and traces of the former presence of natives existed The only water they can possibly get in this region reat number of the so-called native poplar-trees, of two varieties, Codonocarpus, were now e bites at theetation assua ofpuppies were seen and caught by my black boy Tommy and Nicholls, in the scrubs to-day, the fourteenth from the dam Tommy and others had also found a feans', Leipoa ocellata, nests, and we secured a few of the pink-tinted eggs; this was the laying season These, with the turkey Mr Young had shot on the plain, were the only adjuncts to our supplies that we had obtained fro but the native poplar for the careat apparent relish, though to etables The following day, fifteenth from water, we accomplished twenty-six rees 17' The country continued to rise into sandhills, from which the only views obtainable presented spaces precisely similar to those already traversed and left behind to the eastwards, and if it were only froather intelligence of as before us in the future, then would our future be gloomy indeed

At twelve o'clock on the sixteenth day soht on our course, and also sohout this march had been warm; the thermometer at twelve o'clock, e let the camels lie doith their loads on, for an hour, usually stood at 94, 95, or 96 degrees, while in the afternoon it was sorees hotter On Saturday, the 25th of Septe the sixteenth day from the water at the Boundary Dam, we travelled twenty-seven h -trees, and noticed for the first time upon this expedition sorass-tree, Xanthorrhoea; the giant ive a most extraordinary appearance to the scenes they adorn, for they cheat the eye of the traveller into the belief that he is passing through tracts of alluvial soil, and gazing, upon the water-indicating guht we reached athat the careat bunches of spinifex Before us, and all along the western horizon, we had a black-looking and scrubby rise of very high sandhills; each of us noticed its resemblance to those sandhills which had confronted us to the north and east when at Youldeh By observation we found that ere upon the saitude 500 hly probable that no water exists in a straight line between the two places Shortly before evening, Mr Young was in advance steering, but he kept so close under the sun--it being now so near the equinox, the sun set nearly west, and our course being 21 degrees south of west--I had to go forward and tell hinant, and saying, ”Perhaps you'll steer, then, if you don't think I can!” he handed me the compass I took it in silence and steered more southerly, in the proper direction of our course; this led us over a long white ridge of sand, and brought us to the hollohere, as I said before, we had such a wretched encampment I mention this as a circumstance attaches to it

The fate of e uponseen a drop of water There was silence and melancholy in the caion and under such circumstances, there was:--

”A load on each spirit, a cloud o'er each soul, With eyes that could scan not, our destiny's scroll”

Every reat centre of attraction; every action ofI was continually asked night after night if we should get water the following day? The reply, ”How can I tell?” was insufficient; I was supposed to know to an inch where water was and exactly e could reach it I believe all except the officers thought I was h I had explained the situation before leaving the da to co Towards the line of dark sandhills, which forreat fall of country into a kind of hollow, and on the following , the seventeenth day froreatly ihbourhood of water I said nothing ofof the kind also, although I said I would not believe it It was Mr Tietkens's turn to steer, and he started on foot ahead of the string of ca-bull, the best leading cao on top of a white sandhill to our left, a little south of us, and try if he could find any fresh blacks' tracks, or other indications of water I did not know that To--it was an extraordinary event when the whole string of camels could be seen at once in a line in this country--and we had been travelling some two miles and a half when Alec Ross and Peter Nicholls declared that they heard Tos until they are proved, so I kept the party still going on However, even I, soon ceased to doubt, for Toallop, and, between a screah now even for me to hear, ”Water! water! plenty water here!

come on! come on! this way! this way! come on, Mr Giles! mine been find 'em plenty water!” I checked his excitement a moment and asked whether it was a native well he had found, and should we have to work at it with the shovel? Tommy said, ”No fear shovel, that felloater sit down round, ca after him Soon after he left us he had ascended the white sandhill whither Mr Tietkens had sent hiht was presented to his view! A little open oval space of grass land, half ainto a small funnel-shaped hollow, looked at from above He said that before he ascended the sandhill he had seen the tracks of an e he found the bird's track went for the little open circle He then followed it to the spot, and saw ain the sand, with plenty of that inestimable fluid which he had not beheld for more than 300 miles He watered his ca on ignorantly by this life-sustaining prize, to death and doohtly the day before--whenever it was his turn during that day I had had to tell hiht upon our course; and had I not checked his incorrect steering in the evening, we should have passed under the northern face of a long, white sandhill more than two miles north of this water Neither Tommy nor anybody else would have seen the place on which it lies, as it is completely hidden in the scrubs; as it e should have passed within a mile of it if Mr Tietkens had not sent Toh I had h sandhills beyond without a search in this hollow, for my experience told me if there was no water in it, none could exist in this terrible region at all, and we s or e to the water Such characters in the book of Nature the explorer cannot fail to read, as we afterwards saw numerous native foot-marks all about When we arrived with the caem, I found it answered to Toularly-placed water I have ever seen, lying in a srassy flat, and surrounded by clumps of the funereal pines, ”in a desert inaccessible, under the shade ofht well exclaih in this aste there's too many a tree The water is no doubt pere of the sandhills that surround it, and it rests on a substratum of impervious clay It lies exposed to view in a s only about 150 yards in circumference and from two to three feet deep

Farther up the slopes, at her levels, native wells had been sunk in all directions--in each and all of these there ater One large well, apparently a natural one, lay twelve or thirteen feet higher up than the largest basin, and contained a plentiful supply of pure water Beyond the immediate precincts of this open space the scrubs abound