Part 28 (1/2)

Wo for water

First natives seen

Arrival of the party

Camels very thirsty but soon watered

Two hundred miles of desert

Natives coe

A romantic spot

More natives arrive

Native ornaht

Therrees

Animals' tracks

Natives arrive for breakfast

Inspection of native encampment

Old implements of white

A little girl

Dislikes a looking-glass

A quiet and peaceful ca near

Scouts and spies

A furious attack

Personal foe

Dispersion of the ene

Keep a watch

Silence at night

Howls and screa

The Temple of Nature

Reflections

Natives seen no more

On the 6th October, as I have said, we departed, and at once entered into the second division of Her Majesty Queen Victoria's great Australian desert That night we camped at the place where Mr

Tietkens and Alec Ross, albeit a short hs full of water I had instructed them to travel west-north-west The country of course was all scrubs and sandhills We saw a few currajong-trees during our day's stage, and where we carown eucalyptus-trees with yellow bark These seerows on watercourses in parts of New South Wales and Queensland The water I had sent out to this place was just sufficient to fill up the ca day, at three ranite boulders in the scrubs; but there were no receptacles for holding water at any time At sixteen miles we reached a dry salt lake on our left hand; this continued near our line for four miles Both yesterday and to-daysome native wallaby traps in the dense scrubs; these are sihs, bushes, etc, which, when first laid down, h; they are so These lines les, and form a corner For a few yards on each side of the corner the fence is raised to between four and five feet, hs Over this is thrown either a large net or a roofing of boughs I saw no signs of nets in this region The wallaby are hunted until they get alongside the fences; if they are not flurried they will hop along it until they get to a part which is too high, or they think it is; then they go up into the trap, where there is a set knocked on the head for their pains by a black hted a low hill Here was a change At four miles farther we reached its foot; there were salt lake depressions nearly all round us Here we found a small quantity of the little pea-vetch, which is such excellent food for the camels

From the summit of this little hill, the first I had met for nearly 800 e lay to the ard, and nearly across our course, with salt lakes intervening, and others lying nearly all round the horizon At the foot of the little hill we encaround were open, and there were clay-pans upon it, but no rain could have fallen here for ages I should ih, and it was coranite crop out, as ere now approaching the western coast-line forranite, and it was about tie of country should occur The following day, in ht in the rao a long way round to avoid thee we passed the shore of another salt lake, which had a hard, firm, and quartz-pebbly bed, and ere enabled to travel across it to the hills; these we reached in sixteen miles fro as ever

To the west appeared densely scrubby rises, and to the south many salt channels existed, while in every other direction scrubs and scrubby rises bounded the view This low range was about 300 feet high; the ridges beyond continued on our course, a little north of west for two or three ain entered the sandy scrubs, and caht rees 10' 5”, and longitude 122 degrees 7' 6” The next day we had scrubs undulating as usual, andat twelve es, northerly, north-easterly, and east-north-easterly, the hest They were from twenty to thirty miles away from our line