Part 32 (1/2)
The country ere now passing through was all covered with low timber, if indeed the West Australian terrass, but as a rule the region was poor; no views could be had for any distance I was desirous ofmy way to, or near to, Mount Hale, on the Murchison River None of our natives knew any feature beyond, by its European na westerly, and a few isolated patches of granite hills occurred occasionally to the east of our line of march We reached a chain of little creeks or watercourses, and on the 15th carees 46', and longitude about 116 degrees 57' From hence we entered thickets, and arrived at the foot of soranite mounds, where our cowra man said there was plenty of water in a rock-hole It turned out, however, as is usually the case with these persons, that the information was not in strict accordance with the truth, for the receptacle he showed us was exceedingly sly srees west; the latitude of the carees 36' 8” A lot of stony hills lay in front of us to the north Our Cheangwa natives, like the poor, were alith us, although I was anxious to get rid of theuese devil, when he's good he's too good Here I thought it advisable to try to induce theirls really cried; however, by the proar, shi+rts, tobacco, red handkerchiefs, looking glasses, etc, we ed to dry their tears It seemed that our little friends had now nearly reached the boundary of their territories, and so soh the o beyond their own districts, they never let the wo under our protection, didn't care where they went Many of theone, perhaps not in such poetic phrase as is found in Lallah Rookh, east, west--alas! I care not whither, so thou art safe and I with thee It was, however, now agreed that they should return
The weight of the loads so wives carried, , especially when a good-sized child was perched astride on their shoulders as well Thebut a few spears and sticks; they would generally stay behind to hunt or dig out game, and when obtained, leave it for the lubras or wo their footsteps for that purpose
The prettiest of these girls, or at least the one I thought the prettiest, was na lady with one child They were to depart on the ht, Laura came to where my bed was fixed, and askedher last opportunity ”You little viper,” I was going to say, but I jumped up and led her quietly across the camp to where Tommy was fast asleep I woke hiood-bye' to you, and she wants to give you a kiss” To this the uncultivated young cub replied, rubbing his eyes, ”I don't want to kiss hiender, to a fiend like this? and hoas poor Laura to be consoled?
Our cowra and a friend of his, evidently did not intend to leave us just yet; indeed, Mr C gave o; where I lodged, he would lodge; that ood enough for him; and that he would ith me to Melbourne Melbourne was the only word they seemed to have, to indicate a locality reot into three very pretty circular spaces or amphitheatres; round these several ranite hills were placed Round the foot of the right-hand hills, between the first and second a northerly, Mr C showed us three or four rock water-holes, soe in circumference, were pretty deep, and held more than sufficient for double my number of camels Here we outspanned for an hour and had some dinner, much to the satisfaction of our now, only two attendants; we had come about six e to the north, and took it to be part of the Mount Hale Range; Mount Hale itself lying more easterly, was hidden by soh, or across, the third a thirty to fortytravelled only sixteen or seventeenday, we caht there was a river or creek ahead of us; but it proved only a grassy flat, with the gu promiscuously upon it A profusion of the beautiful Sturt, or desert-pea, or Clianthus Daranite hills to the north seee of a kind of valley, and before reaching them, we struck a salt watercourse, in which our two satellites discovered, or probably knew of before, a fresh waterhole in rock and sand in the channel of the creek, with plenty of water in, where we encah near the end of the hot ress ion of ”sere woodlands and sad wildernesses, where, with fire, and fierce drought, on her tresses, insatiable surees 14' 50”
Immediately upon arrival, our cowra man and his friend seehbourhood, and began to nal smokes to induce their country their advent with loud calls and cries, which our two answered Although I could not actually translate what the jabber was all about, I am sure it was a continual question as to our respectability, and whether ere fit and presentable enough to be introduced into their ladies' society The preliminaries and doubts, however, seemed at last to be overcome, and the natives then made their appearance With the wo, and as plues; but they were a bit skeery, and evidently als Our two semi-civilised barbarians induced them to come nearer, however, and apparently spoke very favourably about us, so that they soon became sociable and talkative They were not verycomposed of a very supple, dark kind of skin and hair, which was so thickly smeared over with fat and red ochre, that if any one attempted to hold them, it left a tell-talead day they wanted to accompany us, but I would not permit this, and they departed; at least, we departed, and with us came two men, ould take no denial, or notice ofup after us every now and then Our cowra led us by evening to a small--very small, indeed--rock-hole, in which there was scarcely sufficient water for our four followers It took reatly disgusted when I did so It lay nearly north-west by west frorees 7' 9” Mount Hale now bore a little to the north of east from us, and the timber of the Murchison could be seen for the first time from some hills near the camp
I now steered nearly north-east, for about fifteen miles, until we struck the river The country here consisted of extensive grassy flats, having several lines of gu into small water-channels; the entire width of the river-bed here was between five and six miles We went about three miles into it, and had to enca any in I sent Alec Ross still further northwards, and he found a small rain water-hole two miles farther north-north-easterly; ent there on the following h, and green One of the little dogs, Queenie, in running after soht had not returned to the ca; but when Saleh and Tommy went for the camels, they found her with them I did not intend to ascend Mount Hale, but pushed for Mount Gould, which bore north 55 degrees east After crossing the Murchison channel and flats--fine, grassy, and green--we entered thickets of a, which continued for fifteenfrom the north, towards the Murchison near Mount Hale, and traversing the country on the west side of Mount Gould Mount Gould and Mount Hale are about twenty-twonearly north-north-east and south-south-west fro nearly east and west between, but almost under the northern foot of Mount Hale These two ory in 1858
We reached the Mount Gould creek on the 22nd of April, and almost so soon as we appeared upon its banks, we flushed up a whole host of natives ere living and hunting there There were men, women, and children in scores There was little or no water in the many channels of the new creek; and as there appeared yet another channel near Mount Gould, ent towards it; the natives surrounding us, yelling and gesticulating in the most excited state, but they were, so to say, civil, and showed us some recent rain water in the channel at Mount Gould's foot, at which I fixed the camp As these were the same natives or members of the sa Clarksons, I deters with them The men endeavoured to force their way into the camp several times I somewhat more forcibly repelled thery As a rule, very few people like being beaten with a stick, and these were no exception They did not appear in the least degree afraid, or astonished, at the sight of the camels When they were hobbled out several of the an to pull thehed heartily and in chorus when a calish, and said, ”Which alk? You Melbourne walk?”
theeven in these people's mouths This is to be accounted for by the fact that Mr E Wittenoo taken a Cheangwa black boy with him, the latter had spread the news of the wonders he had seen in the great metropolis, to the uttermost ends of the earth
There was not very rass and herbage here were splendid and green When the men found I would not allow them to skulk about the camp, and apparently desired no intercourse with theht up first one, then another, and another, and another, very pretty young girls; thethem alone in the camp, and as it see, they began to giggle Thelittle boys But I inforether, andnothingThis was a very pretty and picturesque place Mount Gould rose with rough and tie about two miles from the camp
The banks of the creek were shaded with pretty trees, and nurassy flooded lands on either side of the creek The beauty of the place could scarcely be enjoyed, as the weather was so hot and the flies such awful plagues, that life was almost a misery, and it was impossible to obtain a moment's enjoyrees in the shade in the afternoon, and at night thethan the flies in the day
The following day being Sunday, we rested, and at a very early hour crowds of blackup to the camp But thethe encroachht at everything they saw; they danced and pirouetted about a with the and everybody, and they were no wiser when they heard it Soirls and boys had faces, in olive hue, like the ideal representation of angels; how such beauty could exist arade of the human race it is difficult to understand, but there it was Soh they had probably been beautiful as children, their beauty had mostly departed There were several old women at the camp They were not beautiful, but they were very quiet and retiring, and see ones enjoyed Soirl or boy and say it was hers, or hers; they were really very like huh of course no one can possibly be a real hu the natives here is to cicatrise in parallel horizontal lines the abdomens of the fe healed left only faint raised lines, intended to hide any natural corrugations; this in a great er, especially those lately operated on, had a very unsightly appearance
Surely these people cannot dee ladies were lass for the first time They made continual use of the word ”Peterman” This was a word I had first heard froe, upon nify, where are you going? or where have you co to that effect; and fro it, it appears that they e as the natives of the Rawlinson, which is over 600 miles away to the eastward, and is separated froain distressingly hot; the therrees in the shade, which so late in April is soreatly to enjoy sitting in the fine shade s The common house-fly swarh ere attended by houris, I at least did not consider rees 46' 37”, and longitude 117 degrees 25' Next day Alec Ross and I clih work, the height being between 1100 and 1200 feet above the surrounding country, and 2600 feet above the sea level The country irassy, but with the exception of a few miles from the foot of the h flat, is thickly covered with a or thickets; this, in Western Australian parlance, is called a plain Mount Hale appeared her than this hill
The only other conspicuous object in vieas a high peak to the north-north-east The timber of the River Murchison could be traced for so under the northern foot of Mount Hale The creek the camp is situated on came from the north-east The creek we first saw the natives on, co the Murchison Mount Gould is ale blocks of almost pure iron, which rendered the compass useless The creek the camp is on appears to co this place I shall follow it up Sohbourhood, for the whole country is beautifully green The flies at the camp to-day were, if possible, even more numerous than before
They infest the whole air; they see, and breathing flies; they go down our throats in spite of our teeth, and ear them all over our bodies; they creep up one's clothes and die, and others go after them to see what they died of The instant I inhale a fly it acts as an emetic And if Nature abhors a vacuum, she, or at least my nature, abhors these wretches more, for the moment I s one a vacuum is instantly produced Their bodies are full of poisonous h they taste sweet They also cause great pains and discomfort to our eyes, which are always full of theht think ere overrun with ants; but the flies preponderate; the ants ers; they eat up or take away all we s attracted by the s after their prey The natives appear far less friendly to-day, and no young houris have visited us Many of the hbourhood of the ca down at us and our doings, and reporting all our movements to their associates At our meal-times they seem especially watchful, and anxious to discover what it is we eat, and where it co nearer to our shady ho they coer a h heaven's gate, Angels within it”
By the lad to find that the natives had all departed Saleh and Tommy were away after the camels, and had been absent so ht have unhobbled the camels and driven them off, or else attacked the tere after thereat anxiety, hour after hour As they only took one gun besides their revolvers, I was afraid they ht not be able to sustain an attack, if the natives set upon them After the middle of the day they turned up, camels and all, which put an end to our fears
We departed from Mount Gould late in the day, and travelled up the creek our camp was on, and saw several small ponds of clear rain-water, but at the spot where we ca fifteen rees west fro for about twenty ood At twenty-seven miles we came to the junction with another creek, where a fine perood-sized fish in it, exists I nahan camel-driver, as really a first-rate felloithout a lazy bone in his body The greatest requirement of a camel caravan, is some one to keep the saddles in repair, and so avert sore backs Saleh used to do this admirably, and many times in the deserts and elsewhere I have known hieh; they arethe saddles right is a task of the hardest nature In consequence of Saleh's looking after ours so well, we never had any trouble with sore-backed caht wreck a whole caravan We kept on farther up our creek, and at a place we selected for a ca in the channel at a depth of only a few inches in the sandy bed The country now on both sides of the creek was both stony and scrubby Following it up, at ten st thelesser channels, coh-peaked mount first seen from Mount Gould, and I decided to visit it It is most probably the ory, and na a h and broken hills, which proved very severe to the camels' feet, as they had continually to descend into and rise again out of, sharp gullies, the stones being nearly up-edged The going up and down these short, sharp, and sometimes very deep, stony undulations, is a performance that these excellent animals are not specially adapted for Heavily-loaded camels have only a rope crupper under their tails to keep the saddles and loads on, and in descending these places, when the ani theet soreat deal of trouble in consequence
Both yesterday and to-day, the 27th of April,several stunted specimens of the sandal-wood-tree of cohest part of the hills, the country fell slightly towards the north, and we reached a s to the north-north-west; it was quite dry; no rain appeared to have visited it or the country surrounding it for centuries As the sharp stones had not agreed with the caet no water The latitude of our carees 19' The flies and heat were still terrible Leaving the creek and steering still for the high peak of Mount Labouchere, we carassy flat arees 30'
east of north fro out of calcareous soil We did not use it, but continued our journey over and through, both stony and occasionally sandy thickets, to so these, a delightful and truly Australian scene was presented to our view, for before us lay the valley of the Gascoyne River This valley is three or four reen It is bounded on the north, north-easterly, and north-westerly, by abrupt-faced ranges of hills, while down through the centre of the grassy plain stretch serpentine lines of vigorous eucalyptus-trees, pointing out the channels of the nueous and evergreen foliage of the tops, the upright, creaureeably with the dull and soround, and the enaroundwork of the scene We lost no ti from the hills to the beautiful flat below, and discovered a fine long reach of water in the largest channel, where there were nuhtly brackish in taste It appeared to continue for a considerable distance upon either hand, both east and west The herbage was exceedingly fine and green, and it was a reatest charht It could not be said of this place that:
”The gnarled, knotted trunks Eucalyptian, Seeyptian; With curious device, quaint inscription, And hieroglyph strange”
The high Mount Labouchere bore 8 degrees 20' east of north, the latitude was 25 degrees 3', longitude 117 degrees 59', and the variation 4 degrees 28' west The wind blew fiercely froe in the weather From a hill to the north of us we could see that small watercourses descended from low hills to the north and joined the river at various points, one of which, from a north-easterly direction, I shall follow The country in that direction seeeons here No natives ca fire-stick close to the cae, who had probably taken a very keen scrutiny and ive his fellow-barbarians a full, true, and particular account of the wild and hideous beings who had invaded their territory The water-hole was nearly three ; no other water was to be found in any of the other channels in the neighbourhood We have seen no other native garound on the river flats, which had not only been dug, but re-dug, by the natives, and it seereat portion of their food consists of roots and vegetables I remained here two days, and then struck over to the creek before ht h stony pass between the hills A few specie-tree, capparis, were seen We encalen without water The country is now afor the peak, we h , the caravan could proceed only along the beds of the trumpery watercourses By the middle of the 1st of May, the second anniversary of the day I crawled into Fort McKellar, after the loss of Gibson, we crawled up to the foot of Mount Labouchere; it seeh and steep Alec Ross and Saleh ascended the ot, was their trouble, for it was sobeyond it see in particular could be seen It is coranite, with quantities of calcareous stone near its base, and it appears to have been formed by the action of submarine volcanic force No particular hills and no watercourses could be seen in any northerly direction The Gascoyne River could be traced by its valley trend for twenty-five or thirty miles eastwards, and it is most probable that it does not exist at all at fifty miles from where we crossed it The elevation of this mountain was found to be 3400 feet above sea level, and 1800 feet above the surrounding country The latitude of this feature is 24 degrees 44', and its longitude 118 degrees 2', it lying nearly north of Mount Churchns of water anywhere, nor could any places to hold it be seen It was very difficult to get a caht we encamped here was the coolest of the season; the therrees On the stony hills we occasionally saw stunted specie-trees Leaving the foot of this mountain with pleasure, ent away as north-easterly as we could, towards a line of hills with a gap or pass in that direction We found a s easterly, and in it I discovered a pool of clear rain-water, all ah place Arriving at, and departing from, Mount Labouchere has made some of the camels not only very tender-footed, but in consequence of the stony layers lying so up-edged, has cut soht be tracked by a streak of blood on the stones over which we have passed This was not sotheir feet wedged into clefts and dragging them forcibly out
Some were so fortunate as to escape without a scratch We made very little distance to-day, as our camp is not more than five rees west fro it again upon the 4th
Following the watercourse ere encah hills lying north-easterly So soon as we cleared the pass, the creek turned northerly, and ran away over a fine piece of grassy plain, which was a kind of valley, between two lines of hills running east and west, the valley being of some width The timber of the creek fell off here, and the watercourse seemed to exhaust itself upon the valley in a westerly direction, but split into two or three channels before ending, if, indeed, it does end here, which I doubt, as I believe this valley and creek, form the head of the Lyons River, as no doubt the channel forain and continues its course to the west To-day on our journey I noticed some native poplar-trees We left all the water-channels on our left hand, and proceeded north across the plain, towards a low part or fall, between two ranges that run along the northern horizon The valley consists of grassy flats, though soa Some natives' fires were observed in the hills on our line of ht we encamped without water, in a low part of the hills, after travelling nineteen or twenty ht becah, stony, and scrubby hills to traverse At six ot over these and down into another valley, but even in this, the country was all scrub and stones We encae and bushes for the cah, it does not please either us or the caet soft places to stand on while they are feeding, nor are their sleeping places like feather-beds either At night a very slight sprinkling of rain fell for a minute or two
May the 6th was the anniversary of the departure of the caravan froain endeavouring to force our way by a new line More hills, rough and wretched, were travelled over to-day In five st the hills, which seeo north-easterly, so we followed it It h a pass, but no water was seen, though ere anxiously looking for it at every turn Alec shot a wild turkey or bustard to-day After going thirteen or fourteenno water, I camped, and as we had none for ourselves, I sent Alec Ross, Saleh, and Tommy into the hills with the camels to a place about ten miles back, where I had seen a s found a good-sized water-hole, and brought a supply to the caet no observations for latitude While the camels were away I ascended a hill close by the camp; the scene was indeed es being thrown up in all directions; they resemble the billows of a teh a hundred thousand million Pelions had been upon as, flattened out the sureat
Our creek, as well as I could determine, seemed to be joined by others in its course north-easterly I was surprised to find a creek running in that direction, expecting rather to find the fall of the whole region to the opposite point, as we are now in the midst of the hill-country that forms the watershed, that sends sothese watersheds are alenerally lie in almost parallel lines, nearly east and west They are ht, rounded, precipitous, and corrugated fronts, to the astonished eyes that first behold the theth and voluer watercourses, which eventually fall into sonified by the nae themselves into the sea Between the almost parallel lines of hills are hollows or narrow valleys, which are usually as rough and stony as the tops of the hills the mostly filled with scrubs and thickets, it is as dreadful a region for the traveller to gaze upon as can well be iined; it is impossible to describe it There is little or no perion; a shower occasionally falls here and there, and makes a small flood in one or other of the numerous channels; but this seems to be all that the natives of this part of the country have to depend upon If there were any large waters, we ns, or instinct, if not by chance The elereat here as in hidden and shrouded scrubs, for here we can ascend the highest ground, and any leading featurefeatures here are not the high, but the low grounds, not the hills, but the valleys, as in the lowest ground the largest watercourses must be found Hence we follow our present creek, as it er one I know the Ashburton is before us, and not far off now; and as it is the largest river? in Western Australia, it est and lowest valley The nuion seems very limited; we havethe only indication of their existence In the hot ion must be vile in the extre the cool season before me to traverse it in It is stony, sterile, and hideous, and totally unsuited for the occupation or habitation of the white man
CHAPTER 53 FROM 7TH MAY TO 10TH JUNE, 1876
Depart for higher ground
Rainfalls
Ophthallen
Glen Ross
Caer creek
The Ashburton
No natives