n mt im t^l rJni % \t^ v^AHvaaniw^ ^xiuDNvsoi^ "^aaAiNn-awv >&Aavaaniv> -yi B% ^lOSANCQtTx n^ %fflAiNn3WV^ -^^^llIBRARYQ^ ^lUBRARYQc. ^^OJllVJJO'^ .^WE•UNIVER% ^ ^J'iUONVSOl^ "^Z ^OFCAllFOMi^ «^5MEUNIVER5/^ n^ '%i3AiNn3WV^ %\mmii^ "^^ommi^ fOk^ -^-UBRARYQc. ri si irri M^ ^OFCAUFOff^ .\WEUNIVERS'/A ^lOSANCEl£r> o ^lUBRARYO?. ->^ <(?13DNVS01^ %a3AINa3\^^ ^Oim-i^"^ '^ ^5MEUNIVER%. ^lOSANCEl^^ >&A«vaani^ ^J5130nysoi^ "^aaAiNn-awv^ ^OFCAUFOI?^ ^t v/^ ^lOSANCEl£r> A>^tUBRARYac ^ O ft* ) S i 1^ ^iHAiNnav^^ ^lOSANCElCr^ o _ __ _ CO "^aAiNaav^^ ^lllBRARY^/^ ^OFCAUFOM^ ^ - ^(?Aavaan-# ^5MEUNIVER% ^OFCAUFORij^ ^ ^^EUNIVERS'/^ ^ ^^Aavnan# ^j^3nvsoi^ "^ ^ARYQc^ .1^J\EUNIVER% cs>:lOSANCEl% ^UBRARYQa, ^ g^«^.^p^ ti/'^r-*2 ^iir'i ^ 1^1 i^ ^l^llDNV-SOV^^ ^/smmi^ m 5' ^UIBRARYOc. ^OfCAllFOff^ ^(^Aavnan-^ ,5MEl)NIVERy/A <\\tfUNIVER5/^ ^lOSANCElfjr^ <^'^ ^-^ 3 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED: (Efjc Jvoinance of (£ji*pIoratton, BEING A NARRATIVE COMPILED FROM THE JOURNALS OF FIVE EXPLORING EXPEDITIONS INTO AND THROUGH Cejitral South Australia, and Western Australia, From 1872 to 1876, BY ERNEST GILES, Fdlorv, ami GoJd Mcdaliist, of the Royal Geographical Society of London. GO FORTH, MY BOOK, AND SHOW THE THINGS, PILGRIMAGE UNTO THE PILGRIM BRINGS. Bunya7t, IN TWO VOLUMES.— VOL. L WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. LONDON: SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE & RIVINGTON, LIMITED, §t. Xluirstitit's |)OUSt, Fetter Lane, Fleet Street, E.G. 1889. [All rights reserve:!.} LONDON : PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. ^ H ^ CONTENTS OF VOL. I. BOOK I. CHAPTER I. FROM 4TH TO 30TH AUGUST, 1872. The party — Port Augusta— The road — The Peake — Stony pleateau — Telegraph station — Natives formerly hostile — A new member- Leave the Peake — Black boy deserts — Reach the Charlotte "Waters Station — Natives' account of other natives — Leave last outpost — Reach the Finke — A Government party — A ride west- ward — End of the stony plateau — A sandhill region — Chambers' Pillar — The Moloch horridus — Thermometer 18° — The Finke — • Johnstone's range — A night alarm — Beautiful trees — Wild ducks —A tributary — High dark hill — -Country rises in altitude — Very high sandhills — Quicksands — New ranges — A brush ford — New * pigeon— Pointed hill — A clay pan — Christopher's Pinnacle — 5- Chandler's Range — Another new range — Sounds of running «: water — First "natives seen — Name of the river — A Central a: . . . -^ ffi Australian warrior — Natives burning the country — Name a new creek — Ascend a mountain — Vivid green — Discover a glen and more mountains — Hot winds, smoke and ashes . . 3-20 CHAPTER II. 5 ■ FROM 30TH AUGUST TO 6tH SEPTEMBER, 1 872. Milk thistle — In the glen — A serpentine and rocky road — Name a new creek — Grotesque hills — Caves and caverns — Cypress pines — More natives — Astonish them — Agreeable scenery — Sentinel ^ stars — Pelicans — Wild and picturesque scenery — More natives — }t: Palm-trees — A junction in the glen — High ranges to the north— 3 Palms and flowers — The Glen of Palms— Slight rain — Rain at J night — Plant various seeds — End of the glen — Its length — g Krichauff Range— The northern range — Level country between— c 425984 vi CONTENTS. A gcrge — A flooded channel — Cross a western tributary — Wild ducks — Ramble among the mountains — Their altitude — A splendid panorama — Progress stopped by a torrent and im- passable gorge ........ 21-33 CHAPTER III. FROM 6th to 17TH SEPTEMBER, 1872. Progress stopped — Fall back on a tributary — River flooded— A new range — Rudall's Creek — Reach the range — Grass-trees — Wild beauty of scene — Scarcity of water — A pea-like vetch — Name the range — A barren spot — Water seen from it — Follow a creek channel — ^Other creeks join it — A confined glen — Scrubby and stony hills — Strike a gum creek — Slimy water — A pretty tree — Flies troublesome — Emus — An orange-tree — Tropic of Capricorn — Melodious sounds — Carmichael's Creek — Mountains to the north— Ponds of water — A green plain — Clay-pan water — Fine herbage — Kangaroos and emus numerous — ^A new tree — Agreeable encampment — Peculiar mountains — High peak — Start to ascend it — Game plentiful — Racecourse plain — Surrounded by scrubs — A bare slope — A yawning chasm — Appearance of the peak — Gleaming pools — Cypress pines — The tropic clime of youth^ Proceed westwards — Thick scrubs — Native method of procuring water — A pine-clad hill — A watercourse to the south — A poor supply of water — Skywards the only view — Horses all gone — Increasing temperature- — Attempt ascending high bluff — Timber- less mountains — Beautiful flowers — Sultry night — Wretched encampment — Depart from it .... . 34-48 CHAPTER IV. FROM 17TH SEPTEMBER TO 1ST OCTOBER, 1872. Search for the missing horses — Find one — Hot wind and flying sand — Last horse recovered— Annoyed by flies — Mountains to the west — Fine timber — Gardiner's Range — Mount Solitary-^Follow the creek — Dig a tank — Character of the country — Thunder- storms — Mount Peculiar — A desolate region — Sandhills— Useless rain — A bare granite hill — No water — Equinoctial gales — Search for water — Find a rock reservoir — Native fig-trees — Gloomy and desolate view — The old chain — Hills surrounded by scrubs — More hills to the west— Difficult watering-place — Immortelles — Cold weather — View from a hill — Renewed search for water — Find a small supply — Almost unapproachable — Effects of the spinifex on the horses — Pack-horses in scrubs — The Mus conditor — Glistening micaceous hills — Unsuccessful search — Waterless hill nine hundred feet high — Oceans of scrub — Retreat to last reservoir — Natives' smokes — Night without water — Unlucky day CONTENTS. \ — Two horses lost — Recover them — Take a wrong turn — Difficulty in watering the horses — An uncomfortable camp — Unsuccessful searches — Mount Udor — Mark a tree— Tender-footed horses — Poor feed — Sprinkling rain — Flies again troublesome — Start for the western ranges — Difficult scrubs — Lonely camp — Horses away — Reach the range — No water — Retreat to Mount Udor — Slight rain — Determine to abandon this region — Corkwood trees — Ants' nests — Glow-worms — Native poplar-trees — Peculiar climate — Red gum-trees — A mare foals — Depart for the south — Remarks on the country ...... 49-69 CHAPTER V. FROM 1ST TO 15TH OCTOBER, 1 872. A bluff hill — Quandong trees — The mulga-tree — Travel S.S.E. — Mare left behind — ^ Native peaches — Short of water — Large tree- Timbered ridges — -Horses suffer from thirst — Pine-trees — Native encampments^ — Native paintings in caves— Peculiar crevice — A rock tarn — A liquid prize — Caverns and caves — A pretty oasis — Ripe figs — Recover the mare — Thunder and lightning — Orna- mented caves — Hands of glory — A snake in a hole — Heavy dew —Natives burning the country — A rocky eminence — Waterless region — Cheerless view — A race of Salamanders — Circles of fire —Wallaby and pigeons — Wallaby traps— Return to depot — Water diminishing — Glen Edith — Mark trees — The tarn of Auber — Landmarks to it— Seeds sown — Everything in miniature — Journey south — Desert oaks — A better region — Kangaroos and emus — Desert again — A creek channel — Water by scratching — Find more- — Splendid grass — Native signs — Farther south — Beautiful green — Abundance of water — Follow the channel — Laurie's Creek — Vale of Tejiipe — A gap or pass — Without water — Well- grassed plain — Native well — Dry rock-holes — Natives' fires — New ranges — High mountain — Return to creek — And Glen Edith — Description of it . . . . . . 70-90 CHAPTER VI. FROM 15TH OCTOBER, 1872, TO 3IST JANUARY, 1873. Move the camp to new creek — Revisit the pass — Hornets and diamond birds — More ornamented caves — Map study — Start for the mountain — A salt lake — A barrier — Brine ponds — Horses nearly lost — ^Exhausted horses — Follow the lake— A prospect wild and weird — -Mount Olga — Sleepless animals — A day's rest — A National Gallery — Signal'for natives — The lake again — High hill westward — Mount Unapproachable — McNicol's range — Heat increasing — Suff"erings and dejection of the horses — Worrill's Pass— Glen Thirsty — Food all gone — Review of our situation — viii CONTENTS. Horse staked — Pleasure of a bath — A journey eastward — Better regions— A fine creek — Fine open country — -King's Creek — Car- michael's Crag — Penny's Creek— Stokes's Creek — A swim — Bagot's Creek — Termination of the range — Trickett's Creek — George Gill's Range — Petermann's Creek — Return — Two natives — A host of aborigines — Break up the depot — Improvement in the horses — Carmichael's resolve — Levi's Ran^e — Follow the Petermann— Enter a glen — Up a tree — Rapid retreat — Escape Glen^ — A new creek — Fall over a bank — Middleton's Pass — Good country — Friendly natives — Rogers's Pass — Seymour's Range — A fenced-in water-hole — Briscoe's Pass — The Finke — Resight the Pillar— Remarks on the Finke— Reach the telegraph line — Native boys — I buy one — The Charlotte Waters — Colonel War- burton — Arrive at the Peake^ — -News of Dick — Reach Adelaide 91-1.33 BOOK 11. CHAPTER I. FROM 4TH TO 22ND AUGUST, T873. Leave for the west — Ascend the Alberga — An old building — Rain, thunder, and lightning — Leave Alberga for the north-west — Drenched in the night — ^Two lords of the soil — Get their congd — Water-holes — Pretty amphitheatre — Scrubs on either side — Watering the horses — A row of saplings — Spinifex and poplars — Dig a tank — Hot wind — A broken limb — Higher hills — Flat- topped hills — Singular cones — Better country — A horse staked — Bluff-faced hills — The Anthony Range — Cool nights — Tent- shaped hills — Fantastic mounds — Romantic valley — Picturesque scene — A gum creek — Beautiful country — Gusts of fragrance — New and independent hills — Large creek — Native well — Jimmy's report — The Krichauff — Cold nights— Shooting blacks — Labor omnia vincit — Thermometer 28° — Dense scruljs — Small creek — Native pheasant's nest — Beautiful open ground — Charming view —Rocks piled on rocks ...... 143-155 CHAPTER IL FROM 22ND AUGUST TO lOTH SEPTEMBER, 1873. A poor water supply — Seeds planted — Beautiful country — Ride west- ward — A chopped log — -Magnetic hill — Singular scenery — Snail- shells— Cheering prospect westward — A new chain of hills — A nearer moujjtain — Vistas of green — Gibson finds water — Turtle backs — Ornamented Troglodytes' caves — Water and emus — Beef- wood-trees — Grassy lawns — Gum creek — Purple vetch — Cold dewy night — Jumbled turtle backs — Tietkens returns — 1 proceed CONTENTS. — Two-storied native huts — Chinese doctrine— A wonderful moun- tain — Elegant trees — Extraordinary ridge — A garden — Nature imitates her imitator — Wild and strange view — Pool of water — A lonely camp — Between sleeping and waking — Extract from Byron for breakfast — Return for the party — Emus and water — Arrival of Tietkens — A good camp — Tietkens's Birthday Creek — Ascend the mountain — No signs of water — Gill's Range — Flat-topped hili — The Everard Range — High mounts westward — Snail shells — Altitude of the mountain — Pretty scenes — Parrot soup — The sentinel — Thermometer 26° — Frost — Lunar rainbow — A charm- ing spot — A pool of water — Cones of the main range — A new pass — Dreams realised — A long glen — Glen Ferdinand — Mount Ferdinand — -The Reid — Large creek— Disturb a native nation — Spears hurled — A regular attack — Repulse and return of the enemy — Their appearance — Encounter Creek — Mount Officer — The Currie — The Levinger — ^Excellent country — Horse-play — Mount Davenport — Small gap — A fairy space — The Fairies' Glen — Day dreams — Thermometer 24*^ — Ice — -Mount Oberon — Titania's spring — -Horses bewitched— Glen Watson — Mount Olga in view — The Musgrave Range . .... 156-187 CHAPTER in. FROM lOTH TO 30TH SEPTEMBER, 1 873. Leave for Mount Olga — Change of scene — Desert oak-trees — The Mann range — Eraser's Wells — Mount Olga's foot — Gosse's expedition — Marvellous mountain — Running water — Black and gold butterflies — Rocky bath — Ayers' Rock — Appearance of Mount Olga — Irritans camp — Sugar-loaf Hill — Collect plants — Peaches — A patch of better country — A new creek and glen — Heat and cold — A pellucid pond— Zoe's Glen — Christy Bagot's Creek — Stewed ducks — A lake — Hector's Springs and Pass — Lake Wilson — Stevenson's Creek — Milk thistles — Beautiful amphitheatre — A carpet of verdure — Green swamp — Smell of camels — How I found Livingstone — Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit — Cotton and salt bush flats — The Champ de Mars^ — Sheets of water — Peculiar tree — Pleasing scene — Harriet's Springs — Water in grass — Ants and burrs — Mount Aloysius — Across the border — The Bell Rock ...... 188-200 CHAPTER IV. FROM 30TH SEPTEMBER TO QTH NOVEMBER, 1 873. Native encampment — Fires alight — Hogarth's Wells — Mount Marie and Mount Jeannie — Pointed ranges to the west — Chop a passage —Traces of volcanic action — Highly magnetic hills — The Leipoa ocellata — Tapping pits— Glen Osborne — -Cotton-bush flats — CONTENTS. P'rowning bastion walls — Fort Mueller — A strong running stream — Natives'^ smokes — Gosse returning — ■ Limestone formation — Native pheasants' nests — Egg-carrying — Mount Squires— The Mus conditor's nest — Difficulty with the horses — A small creek and native well — Steer for the west — Night work — Very desolate places — A circular storm — The Shoeing Camp — A bare hill — The Cups — Fresh-looking creek — Brine and bitter water — The desert pea — Jimmy and the natives — Natives prowling at night — Searching for water — Horses suffering from thirst — Horseflesh — The Cob — The camp on fire — Men and horses choking for water —Abandon the place — Displeasing view — Native signs — Another cup — Thermometer io6° — Return to the Cob — Old dry well — A junction from the east — Green rushes — Another waterless camp — Return to the Shoeing Camp — Intense cold — Biting dogs' noses — A nasal organ — Boiling an egg — Tietkens and Gibson return unsuccessful — Another attempt west — Country burnt by natives 20t-222 CHAPTER V. FROM 9TH NOVEMBER TO 23RD DECEMBER, 1 873. Alone— Native signs — A stinking pit — Ninety miles from water — ■ Elder's Creek — Hughes's Creek— The Colonel's Range — Rampart- like range — Hills to the north-east— Jamieson's Range — Return to Fort Mueller — Rain — Start for the Shoeing Camp once more — Lightning Rock — Nothing like leather^Pharaoh's inflictions — Photophobists — Hot weather — Fever and philosophy — Tietkens's tank — Gibson taken ill — Mysterious disappearance of water — Earthquake shock — Concussions and falling rocks— The glen — Cut an approach to the water — Another earthquake shock — A bough-house — Gardens — A journey northwards — ^Pine-clad hills — New line of ranges — Return to depot . . . • 223-245 CHAPTER VI. FROM 23RD DECEMBER, 1873, TO i6TH JANUARY, 1874. Primitive laundry — Natives troublesome in our absence — The ives — Gibson's estimate of a straight heel — Christmas Day, 1873 — Attacked by natives — A wild caroo — Wild grapes from a sandal- wood-tree — More earthquakes — The moon on the waters — Another journey northwards — Retreat to the depot — More rain at the depot — Jimmy's escape — A " canis familiaris " — An innocent lamb — Sage-bush scrubs — Groves of oak-trees — Beautiful green flat — Crab-hole water — Bold and abrupt range— A glittering cascade — Invisibly bright water — The murmur in the shell — A shower bath^ — The Alice Falls — Ascend to the summit — A strange view — Gratified at our discoveries — Return to Fort Mueller — Digging with a tomahawk — Storing water — Wallaby for supper — CONTENTS. Another attack — Gibson's gardens — Opossums destructive — Birds — Thoughts — Physical peculiarities of the region — Haunted —Depart 246-264 CHAPTER VII. FROM i6TH JANUARY TO I9TH FEBRUARY, 1874. The Kangaroo Tanks — Horses stampede — Water by digging — Stag- gering horses — Deep rock-reservoir — Glen Gumming — Mount Russell— Glen Gerald— Glen Fielder— The Alice Falls— Separated hills — Splendid-looking creek — Excellent country^ — The Pass of the Abencerrages — Sladen Water — An alarm — Jimmy's anxiety for a date — Mount Barlee — Mount Buttfield—" Stagning" water — Ranges continue to the west- — A notch — Dry rocky basins — Horses impounded — Desolation Glen — Wretched night — Terrible Billy — A thick clump of gums — A strong and rapid stream — The Stemodia viscosa — Head first in a bog — Leuhman's Spring — Groener's and Tyndall's Springs — The Great Gorge — Fort McKellar — The Gorge of Tarns — Ants again^Swim in the tarn — View from summit of range- — Altitude — Tatterdemalions — An explorer's accomplishments — Cool and shady caves — Large rocky tarn — The Circus — High red sandhills to the west — Ancient lake bed — Burrowing wallabies — The North-west Mountain — Jimmy and the grog bottle — The Rawhnson Range — Moth- and fly- catching plant — An inviting mountain — Inviting valley — Fruitless search for water — Ascend the mountain — Mount Robert — Dead and dying horses — Description of the mob — Mount Destruction — Reflections — Life for water — Hot winds — Retreat to Sladen Water — Wild ducks — An ornithological lecture — Shift the camp — Cockatoo parrots — Clouds of pigeons— Dragged by Diaway — Attacked by the natives 265-29S CHAPTER VIII. FROM 20TH FEBRUARY TO I2TH MARCH, 1 874. Journey south-west — Glens and springs — Rough watering-place— A marble bath — Glassy rocks — Swarms of ants — Solitary tree^ — An oven — Terrible night — And day — Wretched appearance of the horses — Mountains of sand — Hopeless view — Speculations — In great pain — Horses in agony — Difficulty in watering them — Another night of misery — Dante's Inferno^ — The waters of oblivion — Return to the pass — Dinner of carrion — A smoke-house — A tour to the east — Singular pinnacle — Eastern ranges — A gum creek — Basins of water — Natives all around — Teocallis — Horrid rites — A chip of the old block — A wayside inn — Gordon's Springs 299-317 ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOL. I. Portrait of Author .... Frontispiece Chambers' Pillar 9 The Moloch Horridus 10 View in the Glen of Palms to face 23 Palm-tree found in the Glen of Palms ... 25 Glen Edith . 85 Penny's Creek in Escape Glen — The Advance 122 „ The Retreat 123 Middleton's Pass and Fish Ponds . . . to face 124 Junction of the Palmer and the Finke . . . 126 An Incident of Travel 147 Tietkens's Birthday Creek and Mount Carnarvon to face 168 On Birthday Creek ........ 171 Encounter with Natives at "The Officer," Mus- GRAVE Range ,,176 The Fairies' Glen ,,184 Zoe's Glen 193 The Stinking Pit 227 Attack at Fort Mueller .... to face 260 Dragged by Diaway ,,295 Attack at Sladen Water .... ,,297 Gill's Pinnacle „ 316 Mops. First Expedition, 1872 .... Second Expedition, 1873-4 Australia, showing the Several Routes to face 3 137 at end. AUTHOR'S NOTES The original journals of the field notes, from which the present narrative is compiled, were published, as each expedition ended, as parliamentary papers by the Govern- ment of the Colony of South Australia, The journals of the first two expeditions, formed a small book, which was distributed mostly to the patrons who had subscribed to the fund for my second expedition. The account of the third, found its way into the South Austra- lian Observer, while the records of the fourth and fifth journeys remained as parliamentary documents, the whole never having appeared together. Thus only fragments of the accounts of my wanderings became known ; and though my name as an explorer has been heard of, both in Australia and England, yet very few people even in the Colonies are aware of what I have really done. Therefore it was thought that a work embodying the whole of my explorations might be acceptable to both English and Colonial readers. Some years have been allowed to elapse since these journeys were commenced ; but the facts are the same, and to those not mixed up in the adventures, the incidents as fresh as when they occurred. Unavoidably, I have had to encounter a large area of desert country in the interior of the colonies of South Australia, and Western Australia, in my various wander- ings ; but I also discovered considerable tracts of lands watered and suitable for occupation. It is not in accordance with my own feelings in regard to Australia that I am the chronicler of her poorer regions ; and although an Englishman, Australia has no sincerer well-wisher ; had it been otherwise, I could not have per- formed the work these volumes record. It has indeed been often a cause of regret that my lines of march should have led me away from the beautiful and fertile places upon Australia's shores, where our countrymen have made their homes. xiv A UTHOR'S NOTES. On the subject of the wonderful resources of Australia I am not called upon to enlarge, and surely all who have heard her name must have heard also of her gold, copper, wool, wine, beef, mutton, wheat, timber, and other products; and if any other evidence were wanting to show what Australia really is, a visit to her cities, and an experience of her civilisation, not forgetting the great revenues of her different provinces, would dispel at once all previous inaccurate impressions of those who, never having seen, perhaps cannot believe in the existence of them. In the course of this work my reader will easily discover to whom it is dedicated, without a more formal statement under such a heading. The preface, which may seem out of its place, is merely such to my own journeys. I thought it due to my readers and my predecessors in the Australian field of discover}^, that I should give a rapid epitome (which may contain some minor errors) of what they had done, and which is here put forward by way of introduction. Most of the illustrations, except one or two photographs, were originally from very rough sketches, or I might rather say scratches, of mine, improved upon by Mr. Val Prinsep, of Perth, Western Australia, who drew most of the plates referring to the camel expeditions, while those relating to the horse journeys were sketched by ]\Ir. Woodhouse, Junr., of Melbourne ; the whole, however, have undergone a process of reproduction at the hands of London artists. To Mrs. Cashel Hoey, the well-known authoress and Australian correspondent, who revised and cleared my original MSS., I have to accord my most sincere thanks. To Mr. Henniker-Heaton, M.P., who appears to be the Imperial Member in the British Parliament for all Aus- tralia, I am under great obligations, he having introduced me to Mr. Marston, of the publishing firm who have pro- duced these volumes. I also have to thank Messrs. Clowes and Sons for the masterly way in which they have printec this work. Also Messrs. Creed, Robinson, Fricker, and Symons, of the publishing staff. The maps have been reproduced by Weller, the well-known geographer. INTRODUCTION. Before narrating my own labours in opening out portions of the unknown interior of Australia, it will be well that I should give a succinct account of what others engaged in the same arduous enterprise around the shores and on the face of the great Southern Continent, have accomplished. After the wondrous discoveries of Columbus had set the Old World into a state of excitement, the finding of new lands appears to have become the romance of that day, as the exploration by land of unknown regions has been that of our time ; and in less than fifty years after the discovery of America navigators were searching every sea in hopes of emulating the deeds of that great explorer ; but nearly a hundred years elapsed before it became known in Europe that a vast and misty land existed in the south, whose northern and western shores had been met in certain latitudes and longi- tudes, but whose general outline had not been traced, nor was it even then visited with anything like a systematic geographical object. The fact of the existence of such a land at the European antipodes no doubt set many ardent and adven- turous spirits upon the search, but of their exploits and labours we know nothing. xvi INTR on UCTION. The Dutch were the most eager in their attempts, although Torres, a Spaniard, was, so far as we know, the first to pass in a voyage from the West Coast of America to India, between the Indian or Malay Islands, and the great continent to the south ; hence we have Torres Straits. The first authentic voyager, however, to our actual shores was Theodoric Hertoge, subsequently known as Dirk Hartog — bound from Holland to India. He arrived at the western coast between the years 1610 and 1 6 16. An island on the west coast bears his name : there he left a tin plate nailed to a tree with the date of his visit and the name of his ship, the Endragt, marked upon it. Not very long after Theodoric Hertoge, and still to the western and north-western coasts, came Zeachern, Edels, Nuitz, De Witt, and Pelsart, who was wrecked upon Houtman's Albrolhos, or rocks named by Edels, in his ship the Leewin or Lion. Cape Leewin is called after this vessel. Pelsart left two convicts on the Australian coast in 1629. Carpenter was the next navigator, and all these adventurers have indelibly affixed their names to portions of the coast of the land they discovered. The next, and a greater than these, at least greater in his navi- gating successes, was Abel Janz Tasman, in 1642. Tasman was instructed to inquire from the native inhabitants for Pelsart's two convicts, and to bring them away with him, if they entreated him ; but they were never heard of again. Tasman sailed round a great portion of the Australian coast, dis- covered what he named Van Dieman's land, now Tasmania, and New Zealand. He it was who called the whole, believing it to be one, New INTR on UCTION. xvii Holland, after the land of his birth. Next we have Dampier, an English buccaneer — though the name sounds very like Dutch ; it was probably by chance only that he and his roving crew visited these shores. Then came Wilhelm Vlaming with three ships. God save the mark to call such things ships. How the men performed the feats they did, wan- dering over vast and unknown oceans, visiting unknown coasts with iron-bound shores, beset with sunken reefs, subsisting on food not fit for human beings, suffering from scurvy caused by salted diet and rotten biscuit, with a short allowance of water, in torrid zones, and liable to be attacked and killed by hostile natives, it is difficult for us to conceive. They suffered all the hardships it is possible to imagine upon the sea, and for what ? for fame, for glory ? That their names and achievements might be handed down to us ; and this seems to have been their only reward ; for there was no Geographical Society's medal in those days with its motto to spur them on. Vlaming was the discoverer of the Swan River, upon which the seaport town of Freemantle and the picturesque city of Perth, in Western Australia, now stand. This river he discovered in 1697, and he was the first who saw Dirk Hartog's tin plate. Dampier's report of the regions he had visited caused him to be sent out again in 1710 by the British Government, and upon his return, all pre- vious doubts, if any existed, as to the reality of the existence of this continent, were dispelled, and the position of its western shores was well established. Dampier discovered a beautiful flower of the pea family known as the Clianthus Dampierii. In 1845 VOL. I. b INTRODUCTION. Captain Sturt found the same flower on his Central AustraUan expedition, and it is now generally known as Sturt's Desert Pea, but it is properly named in its botanical classification, after its original discoverer. After Dampier's discoveries, something like sixty years elapsed before Cook appeared upon the scene, and it was not until his return to Engrland that practical results seemed likely to accrue to any nation from the far-off land. I shall not recapitu- late Cook's voyages ; the first fitted out by the British Government was made in 1768, but Cook did not touch upon Australia's coast until two years later, when, voyaging northwards along the eastern coast, he anchored at a spot he called Botany Bay, from the brightness and abundance of the beautiful wild flowers he found growing there. Here two natives attempted to prevent his landing, although the boats were manned with forty men. The natives threw stones and spears at the invaders, but nobody was killed. At this remote and previously unvisited spot one of the crew named Forby Suther- land, who had died on board the Endeavour, was buried, his being the first white man's grave ever dug upon Australia's shore ; at least the first authenticated one — for might not the remaining one of the two unfortunate convicts left by Pelsart have dug a grave for his companion who was the first to die, no man remaining to bury the survivor ? Cook's route on this voyage was along the eastern coast from Cape Howe in south latitude ^yl'^ 30' to Cape York in Torres Straits in latitude 10° 40'. He called the country New South Wales, from its fancied resemblance to that older land, and he took INTRODUCTION. possession of the whole in the name of George III. as England's territory. Cook reported so favourably of the regions he had discovered that the British Government decided to establish a colony there ; the spot finally selected was at Port Jackson, and the settlement was called Sydney in 1788. After Cook came the Frenchman Du Fresne and his unfortunate countryman, La Perouse. Then Vancouver, Blyth, and the French General and Admiral, D'Entre-Casteaux, who went in search of the missing La Perouse. In 1826, Cap- tain Dillon, an English navigator, found the stranded remains of La Perouse's ships at two of the Char- lotte Islands group. We now come to another great English navigator, Matthew Flinders, who was the first to circumnavigate Australia ; to him belongs the honour of having given to this great island continent the name it now bears. In 1798, F'linders and Bass, sailing in an open boat from Sydney, discovered that Australia and Van Die- man's Land were separate ; the dividing straits between were then named after Bass. In 1802, during his second voyage in the Investigator, a vessel about the size of a modern ship's launch, Flinders had with him as a midshipman John Franklin, afterwards the celebrated Arctic naviga- tor. On his return to England, Flinders, touching at the Isle of France, was made prisoner by the French governor and detained for nearly seven years, during which time a French navigator Nicolas Baudin, with whom came Perron and Lace- pede the naturalists, and whom Flinders had met at a part of the southern coast which he called En- counter Bay in reference to that meeting, claimed b 2 INTRO D UCTION. and reaped the honour and reward of a great portion of the unfortunate prisoner's work. Alas for human hopes and aspirations, this gallant sailor died before his merits could be acknowledeed or rewarded, and I believe one or two of his sisters were, until very lately, living in the very poorest circumstances. The name of Flinders is, however, held in greater veneration than any of his predecessors or succes- sors, for no part of the Australian coast was un- visited by him. Rivers, mountain ranges, parks, districts, counties, and electoral divisions, have all been named after him ; and, indeed, I may say the same of Cook ; but, his work being mostly confined to the eastern coast, the more western colonies are not so intimately connected with his name, although an Australian poet has called him the Columbus of our shore. After Flinders and Baudin came another French- man, De Freycinet, bound on a tour of discovery all over the world. Australia's next navigator was Captain, subse- quently Admiral, Philip Parker King, who car- ried out four separate voyages of discovery, mostly upon the northern coasts. At three places upon which King favourably reported, namely Camden Harbour on the north-west coast. Port Essington in Arnhiem's Land, and Port Cockburn in Apsley Straits, between Melville and Bathurst Islands on the north coast, military and penal settlements were established, but from want of further emigration these were abandoned. King completed a great amount of marine surveying on these voyages, which occurred between the years 1813 and 1822. INTR on UCTION. xxi Captain Wickham in the Beagle comes next ; he discovered the Pitzroy River, which he found emptied itself into a gulf named King's Sound. In consequence of ill-health Captain Wickham, after but a short sojourn on these shores, resigned his command, and Lieutenant Lort Stokes, who had sailed with him in the Beagle round the rocky shores of Magellan's Straits and Tierra del Fuego, received the command from the Lords of the Admi- ralty. Captain Lort Stokes may be considered the last, but by no means the least, of the Australian navigators. On one occasion he was speared by natives of what he justly called Treachery Bay, near the mouth of the Victoria River in Northern Australia, discovered by him. His voyages occurred between the years 1839 and 1843. He discovered the mouths of most of the rivers that fall into the Gulf of Carpentaria, besides many harbours, bays, estuaries, and other geographical features upon the North Australian coasts. The early navigators had to encounter much difficulty and many dangers in their task of making surveys from the rough achievements of the Dutch, down to the more finished work of Flinders, King, and Stokes, It is to be remembered that they came neither for pleasure nor for rest, but to dis- cover the gulfs, bays, peninsulas, mountains, rivers and harbours, as well as to make acquaintance with the native races, the soils, and animal and vege- table products of the great new land, so as to diffuse the knowledge so gained for the benefit of others who might come after them. In cockle-shells of little ships what dangers did they not encounter from shipwreck on the sunken edges of coral ledges INTROD UCTION. of the new and shallow seas, how many were those who were never heard of again ; how many a little exploring bark with its adventurous crew have been sunk in Australia's seas, while those poor wretches who might, in times gone by, have landed upon the inhospitable shore would certainly have been killed by the wild and savage hordes of hostile aborigines, from whom there could be no escape ! With Stokes the list of those who have visited and benefited Australia by their labours from the sea must close ; my only regret being that so poor a chronicler is giving an outline of their achievements. I now turn to another kind of exploration — and have to narrate deeds of even greater danger, though of a different kind, done upon Australia's face. In giving a short account of those gallant men who have left everlasting names as explorers upon the terra Jirma and terra incognita of our Australian possession, I must begin with the earliest, and go back a hundred years to the arrival of Governor Phillip at Botany Bay, in 1788, with eleven ships, which have ever since been known as The First Fleet. I am not called upon to narrate the history of the settlement, but will only say that the Governor showed sound judgment when he removed his fleet and all his men from Botany Bay to Port Jackson, and founded the village of Sydney, which has now become the huge capital city of New South Wales. A new region was thus opened out for British labour, trade, capital, and enterprise. From the earliest days of the settlement adventurous and enterprising men, among whom was the Governor himself, who was on one occasion speared by the natives, were found willing to venture their lives in INTRODUCTION. the exploration of the country upon whose shores they had so lately landed. Wentworth, Blaxland, and Evans appear on the list as the very first explorers by land. The chief object they had in view was to surmount the difficulties which opposed their attempting to cross the Blue Mountains, and Evans was the first who accomplished this. The first efficient exploring expedition into the interior of New South Wales was conducted by John Oxley, the Surveyor-General of the colony, in 1817. His principal discovery was that some of the Australian streams ran inland, towards the interior, and he traced both the Macquarie and the Lachlan, named by him after Governor Lachlan Macquarie, until he supposed they ended in vast swamps or marshes, and thereby founded the theory that in the centre of Australia there existed a great inland sea. After Oxley came two explorers named respectively Howel and Hume, who penetrated, in 1824, from the New South Wales settlements into what is now the colony of Victoria. They discovered the upper portions of the River Murray, which they crossed somewhere in the neighbourhood of the present town of Albury. The river was then called the Hume, but it was subsequently called the Murray by Captain Charles Sturt, who heads the list of Australia's heroes with the title of The Father of Australian Exploration. In 1827 Sturt made one of the greatest discoveries of this century — or at least one of the most useful for his countrymen — that of the River Darling, the great western artery of the river system of New South Wales, and what is now South-western Queensland. In another expedition, in 1832, Sturt INTRODUCTION. traced the Murrumbidgee River, discovered by Oxley, in boats, into what he called the Murray. This river is the same found by Howel and Hume, Sturt's name for it having been adopted. He en- tered the new stream, which was lined on either bank by troops of hostile natives, from whom he had many narrow escapes, and found it trended for several hundreds of miles in a west-north-west direction, confirming him in his idea of an inland sea ; but at a certain point, which he called the great north-west bend, it suddenly turned south and forced its way to the sea at Encounter Bay, where Flinders met Baudin in 1803. Neither of these explorers appear to have discovered the river's mouth. On this occasion Sturt discovered the province or colony of South Australia, which in 1837 was proclaimed by the British Government, and in that colony Sturt afterwards made his home. Sturt's third and final expedition was from the colony of South Australia into Central Australia, in 1 843- 1 845. This was the first truly Central Aus- tralian expedition that had yet been despatched, although in 1841 Edward Eyre had attempted the same arduous enterprise. Of this I shall write anon. On his third expedition Sturt discovered the Barrier, the Grey, and the Stokes ranges, and among numerous smaller watercourses he found and named Strezletki's, Cooper's, and Eyre's Creeks. The latter remained the furthest known inland water of Australia for many years after Sturt's return. Sturt was accompanied, as surveyor and draftsman, by John McDouall Stuart, whom I shall mention in his turn. So far as my opinion, formed in my wanderings over the greater portions of the country INTRODUCTION. explored by Sturt, goes, his estimate of the regions he visited has scarcely been borne out according to the views of the present day. Like Oxley, he was fully impressed with the notion that an inland sea did exist, and although he never met such a feature in his travels, he seems to have thought it must be only a little more remote than the parts he had reached. He was fully prepared to come upon an inland sea, for he carried a boat on a bullock waggon for hundreds of miles, and when he finally abandoned it he writes : " Here we left the boat which I had vainly hoped would have ploughed the waters of an inland sea." Several years afterwards I discovered pieces of this boat, built of New Zealand pine, in the debris of a flood about twenty miles down the watercourse where it had been left. A great portion, if not all the country, explored by that expedition is now highly-prized pastoral land, and a gold field was discovered almost in sight of a depot formed by Sturt, at a spot where he was imprisoned at a water hole for six months without moving his camp. He described the whole region as a desert, and he seems to have been haunted by the notion that he had got into and was surrounded by a wilderness the like of which no human being had ever seen or heard of before. His whole narrative is a tale of suffering and woe, and he says on his map, being at the furthest point he attained in the interior, about forty-five miles from where he had encamped on the watercourse he called Eyre's Creek, now a watering place for stock on a Queensland cattle run : " Halted at sunset in a country such as I verily believe has no parallel upon the earth's surface, and one which xxvi INTRODUCTION. was terrible in its aspect." Sturt's views are only to be accounted for by the fact that what we now call excellent sheep and cattle country appeared to him like a desert, because his comparisons were made with the best alluvial lands he had left near the coast. Explorers as a rule, great ones more parti- cularly, are not without rivals in so honourable a field as that of discovery, although not every one who undertakes the task is fitted either by nature or art to adorn the chosen part. Sturt was rivalled by no less celebrated an individual than Major, afterwards Sir Thomas, Mitchell, a soldier of the Peninsula War, and some professional jealousy appears to have existed between them. Major Mitchell was then the Surveyor-General of the Colony, and he entirely traversed and made known the region he appropriately named Australia Felix, now the colony of Victoria. Mitchell, like Sturt, conducted three expeditions : the first in 1 831-1832, when he traced the River Darling pre- viously discovered by Sturt, for several hundred miles, until he found it trend directly to the locality at which Sturt, in his journey down the Murray, had seen and laid down its mouth or junction with the larger river. Far up the Darling, in latitude 30° 5', Mitchell built a stockade and formed a depot, which he called Fort Bourke ; near this spot the present town of Bourke is situated and now connected by rail with Sydney, the distance being about 560 miles. Mitchell's second journey, when he visited Australia Felix, was made in 1835, ^'^^ his last expedition into tropical Australia was in 1845. On this expe- dition he discovered a large river running in a north- westerly direction, and as its channel was so large, and INTRODUCTION. its general appearance so grand, he conjectured that it would prove to be the Victoria River of Captain Lort Stokes, and that it would run on in probably increasing size, or at least in undiminished magni- ficence, through the iioo or 1200 miles of country that intervened between his own and Captain Stokes's position. He therefore called it the Vic- toria River. Gregory subsequently discovered that Mitchell's Victoria turned south, and was one and the same watercourse called Cooper's Creek by Sturt. The upper portion of this watercourse is now known by its native name of the Barcoo, the name Victoria being ignored. Mitchell always had surveyors with him, who chained as he went .every yard of the thousands of miles he explored. He was knighted for his explorations, and lived to enjoy the honour ; so indeed was Sturt, but in his case it was only a mockery, for he was totally blind and almost on his death-bed when the recos^nition of his numerous and valuable services was so tardily conferred upon him.* These two great travellers were followed by, or worked simultaneously, although in a totally dif- ferent part of the continent, viz. the north-west coast, with Sir George Grey in 1837-1839. His labours and escapes from death by spear wounds, shipwreck, starvation, thirst, and fatigue, fill his volumes with incidents of the deepest interest. Edward Eyre, subsequently known as Governor Eyre, made an attempt to reach, in 1 840-1 841, Central Australia by a route north from the city of Adelaide ; and as * Dr. W. H. Browne, who accompanied Sturt to Central Aus- tralia in 1843-5 ^s surgeon and naturalist, is living in London ; and another earlier companion of the Father of Australian Exploration, George McCleay, still survives. xxviii INTRODUCTION. Sturt imagined himself surrounded by a desert, so Eyre thought he was hemmed in by a circular or horse-shoe-shaped salt depression, which he called Lake Torrens ; because, wherever he tried to push northwards, north-westwards, eastwards, or north- eastwards, he invariably came upon the shores of one of these objectionable and impassable features. As we now know, there are several of them with spaces of traversable ground between, instead of the obstacle being one continuous circle by which he supposed he was surrounded. In consequence of his inability to overcome this obstruction, Eyre gave up the attempt to penetrate into Central Australia, but pushing westerly, round the head of Flinders', Spencer's, Gulf, where now the inland seaport town of Port Augusta stands, he forced his way along the coast line from Port Lincoln to Fowler's Bay (Flinders), and thence along the perpendicular cliffs of the great Australian Bight to Albany, at King George's Sound. This journey of Eyre's was very remarkable in more ways than one ; its most extraordinary inci- dent being the statement that his horses travelled for seven days and nights without water. I have travelled with horses in almost every part of Aus- tralia, but I know that after three days and three nights without water horses would certainly knock up, die, or become utterly useless, and it would be impossible to make them continue travelling. Another remarkable incident of his march is strange enough. One night whilst Eyre was watching the horses, there being no water at the encampment, Baxter, his only white companion, was murdered by two little black boys belonging to South Australia, who had been with Eyre for some time previously. INTRODUCTION. These little boys shot Baxter and robbed the camp of nearly all the food and ammunition it contained, and then, while Eyre was running up from the horses to where Baxter lay, decamped into the bush and were only seen the following morning, but never afterwards. One other and older boy, a native of Albany, whither Eyre was bound, now alone re- mained. Eyre and this boy (Wylie) now pushed on in a starving condition, living upon dead fish or anything they could find for several weeks, and never could have reached the Sound had they not, by almost a miracle, fallen in with a French whaling schooner when nearly 300 miles had yet to be traversed. The captain, who was an Englishman named Rossiter, treated them most handsomely ; he took them on board for a month while their horses recruited on shore — for this was a watering place of Flinders — he then completely refitted them with every necessary before he would allow them to depart. Eyre in gratitude called the place Rossiter Bay, but it seems to have been prophetically chris- tened previously by the ubiquitous Flinders, under the name of Lucky Bay. Nearly all the watering places visited by Eyre consisted of the drainage from great accumulations of pure white sand or hummocks, which were previously discovered by the Investigator, as Flinders himself might well have been called. The most peculiar of these features is the patch at what Flinders called the head of the Great Australian Bight ; these sandhills rise to an elevation of several hundred feet, the prevailing southerly winds causing them to slope gradually from the south, while the northern face is precipi- tous. In moonliorht I have seen these sandhills, a o few miles away, shining like snowy mountains, being INTRODUCTION. refracted to an unnatural altitude by the bright moonlight. Fortunate indeed it was for Eyre that such relief was afforded him ; he was unable to penetrate at all into the interior, and he brought back no information of the character and nature of the country inland. I am the only traveller who has explored that part of the interior, but of this more hereafter. About this time Strezletki and McMillan, both from New South Wales, explored the region now the easternmost part of the colony of Victoria, which Strezletki called Gipp's Land. These two explorers were rivals, and both, it seems, claimed to have been first in that field. Next on the list of explorers comes Ludwig Leichhardt, a surgeon, a botanist, and an eager seeker after fame in the Australian field of dis- covery, and whose memory all must revere. He successfully conducted an expedition from Moreton Bay to the Port Essington of King — on the northern coast — by which he made known the geographical features of a great part of what is now Queensland, the capital being Brisbane at Moreton Bay. A settlement had been established at Port Essington by the Government of New South Wales, to which colony the whole territory then belonged. At this settlement, as being the only point of relief after eighteen months of travel, Leichhardt and his exhausted party arrived. The settlement was a military and penal one, but was ultimately aban- doned. It is now a cattle station in the northern territory division of South Australia, and belongs to some gentlemen in Adelaide. Of Leichhardt's sad fate in the interior of Aus- tralia no tidings have ever been heard. On this INTRODUCTION. fatal journey, which occurred in 1 848, he undertook the too orjorantic task of crossinof AustraHa from east to west, that is to say, from Moreton Bay to Swan River. Even at that period, however, the eastern interior was not all entirely unknown, as Mitchell's Victoria River or Barcoo, and the Cooper's and Eyre's Creeks of Sturt had already been discovered. The last-named watercourse lay nearly looo miles from the eastern coast, in lati- tude 25° south, and it is reasonable to suppose that to such a point Leichhardt would natuarlly direct his course — indeed in what was probably his last letter, addressed to a friend, he mentions this water- course as a desirable point to make for upon his new attempt. But where his wanderings ended, and where the catastrophe that closed his own and his companions' lives occurred, no tongue can tell. After he finally left the furthest outlying settle- ments at the Mount Abundance station, he, like the lost Pleiad, was seen on earth no more. How could he have died and where ? ah, where indeed ? I who have wandered into and returned alive from the curious regions he attempted and died to explore, have unfortunately never come across a single record or any remains or traces of those long lost but unforgotten braves. Leichhardt originally started on his last sad venture with a party of eight, including one if not two native black boys. Owing, however, to some disagreement, the whole party returned to the starting point, but being reorganised it started again with the same number of members. There were about twenty head of bullocks broken in to carry pack-loads ; this was an ordinary custom in those early days of Australian settlement. Leich- xxxii INTRODUCTION. hardt also had two horses and five or six mules : this outfit was mostly contributed by the settlers who gave, some flour, some bullocks, some money, firearms, gear, &c., and some gave sheep and goats ; he had about a hundred of the latter. The packed bullocks were taken to supply the party with beef, in the meantime carrying the expedition stores. The bullocks' pack-saddles were huge, ungainly frames of wood fastened with iron-work, rings, &c. Shortly after the expedition made a second start, two or three of the members again seceded, and returned to the settlements, while Leichhardt and his remaining band pushed farther and farther to the west. Although the eastern half of the continent is now inhabited, though thinly, no traces of any kind, except two or three branded trees in the valley of the Cooper, have ever been found. My belief is that the only cause to be assigned for their destruc- tion is summed up in the dread word "flood." They were so far traced into the valley of the Cooper ; this creek, which has a very lengthy course, ends in Lake Eyre, one of the salt depres- sions which baffled that explorer. A point on the southern shore is now known as Eyre's Lookout, The Cooper is known in times of flood to reach a width of between forty and fifty miles, the whole valley being inundated. Floods may surround a traveller while not a drop of local rain may fall, and had the members of this expedition perished in any other way, some remains of iron pack- saddle frames, horns, bones, skulls, firearms, and other articles must have been found by the native inhabitants who occupied the region, and would INTRODUCTION. long ago have been pointed out by the aborigines to the next comers who invaded their territories. The length of time that animals' bones might remain intact in the open air in Australia is exem- plified by the fact that in 1870, John Forrest found the skull of a horse in one of Eyre's camps on the cliffs of the south coast thirty years after it was left there by Eyre. Forrest carried the skull to Adelaide. I argue, therefore, that if Leichhardt's animals and equipment had not been buried by a flood, some remains must have been since found, for it is impossible, if such things were above ground, that they could escape the lynx-like glances of Australian aboriginals, whose wonderful visual powers are unsurpassed among mankind. Every- body and everything muse have been swallowed in a cataclysm and buried deep and sure in the mud and slime of a flood. The New South Wales Government made praiseworthy efforts to rescue the missing traveller. About a year after Leichhardt visited Port Essing- ton, the Government abandoned the settlement, and the prevailing opinion in the colony of New South Wales at that time was, that Leichhardt had not been able to reach Eyre's Creek, but had been forced up north, from his intended route, the inland- sea theory still prevailing, and that he had probably returned to the old settlement for relief. Therefore, when he had been absent two years, the Govern- ment despatched a schooner to the abandoned place. The master of the vessel saw several of the half- civilised natives, who well remembered Leichhardt's arrival there, but he had not returned. The natives promised the master to take the greatest care of him VOL. I. C INTRODUCTION. should he again appear, but it is needless to say he was seen no more. The Government were very solicitous about him, and when he had been absent four years, Mr. Hovendon Heley was sent away with an outfit of pack-horses and six or seven men, to endeavour to trace him. This expedition seems to have wandered about for several months, and discovered, as Mr. Heley states, two marked trees branded exactly alike, viz. ^f^, and each spot where these existed is minutely described. There was at each, a water-hole, upon the bank of which the camp was situated ; at each camp a marked tree was found branded alike ; at each, the frame of a tent was left standing ; at each, some logs had been laid down to place the stores and keep them from damp. The two places as described appear so identical that it seems impossible to think other- wise than that Heley and his party arrived twice at the same place without knowing it. The tree or trees were found on a watercourse, or courses, near the head of the Warrego River, in Queensland. The above was all the information gained by this expedition. A subsequent search expedition was sent out in 1858, under Augustus Gregory; this I shall place in its chronological order. Kennedy, a companion of Sir Thomas Mitchell into Tropical Australia in 1845, next enters the field. He went to trace Mitchell's Victoria River or Barcoo, but finding it turned southwards and broke into many channels, he abandoned it, and on his return journey discovered the Warrego River, which may be termed the Murrumbidgee of Queensland. On a second expedition, in 1848, Kennedy started from Moreton Bay to penetrate and explore the country of the INTRODUCTION. xxxv long- peninsula, which runs up northward between the Gulf of Carpentaria and the Pacific Ocean, and ends at Cape York, the northernmost point of Australia in Torres Straits. From this disastrous expedition he never returned. He was starved, ill, fatigued, hunted by remorseless aborigines for days, and finally speared to death by the natives of Cape York, when almost within sight of his goal, where a vessel was waiting to succour him and all his party. Only a black boy named Jacky Jacky was with him. After Kennedy's death Jacky buried all his papers in a hollow tree, and for a couple of days he eluded his pursuers, until, reaching the spot where his master had told him the vessel would be, he ran yelling down to the beach, followed by a crowd of murderous savages. By the luckiest chance a boat happened to be at the beach, and the officers and crew rescued the boy. The following day a party led by Jacky returned to where poor Kennedy lay, and they buried him. They obtained his books and maps from the tree where Jacky had hidden them. The narrative of this expedition is heart-rending. Of the whole number of the whites, namely seven, two only were rescued by the vessel at a place where Kennedy had formed a depot on the coast, and left four men. With Captain Roe, a companion of King's, with whom he was speared and nearly killed by the natives of Goulburn Island, in 1820, and who after- wards became Surveyor-General of the colony of Western Australia, the list of Australia's early explorers may be said to close, although I should remark that Augustus Gregory was a West Aus- tralian explorer as early as the year 1 846. Captain c 2 INTR on UCTION. Roe conducted the most extensive inland explora- tion of Western Australia at that day, in 1848. No works of fiction can excel, or indeed equal, in romantic and heart-stirring interest the volumes, worthy to be written in letters of gold, which record the deeds and the sufferinors of these noble toilers in the dim and distant field of discovery afforded by the Australasian continent and its vast islands. It would be well if those works were read by the present generation as eagerly as the imaginary tales of adventure which, while they appeal to no real sentiment, and convey no solid information, cannot compete for a moment with those sublime records of what has been dared, done, and suffered, at the call of duty, and for the sake of human interests by men who have really lived and died. I do not say that all works of fiction are entirely without interest to the human imagination, or that writers of some of these works are not clever, for in one sense they certainly are, and that is, in only writing of horrors that never occurred, without going through the preliminary agony of a practical realisation of the dangers they so graphically describe, and from which, perhaps, they might be the very first to flee, though their heroes are made to appear nothing less than demigods. Strange as it may appear, it seems because the tales of Australian travel and self- devotion are true, that they attract but little notice, for were the narratives of the explorers not true we might become the most renowned novelists the world has ever known. Again, Australian geo- graphy, as explained in the works of Australian exploration, might be called an unlearned study. Let me ask how many boys out of a hundred in INTRODUCTION. Australia, or England either, have ever read Sturt or Mitchell, Eyre, Leichhardt, Grey, or Stuart. It is possible a few may have read Cook's voyages, because they appear more national, but who has read Flinders, King, or Stokes ? Is it because these narratives are Australian and true that they are not worthy of attention ? Having well-nigh exhausted the list of the early explorers in Australia, it is necessary now to turn to a more modern school. I must admit that in the works of this second section, with a few exceptions, such stirring narratives as those of the older travellers cannot be found. Nevertheless, consider- able interest must still attach to them, as they in reality carry on the burning torch which will not be consumed until by its light the whole of Australia stands revealed. The modern explorers are of a different class, and perhaps of one not so high as their prede- cessors. By this remark I do not mean anything invidious, and if any of the moderns are correctly to be classed with the ancients, the Brothers Gregory must be spoken of next, as being the fittest to head a secondary list. Augustus Gregory was in the West Australian field of discovery in 1846. He was a great mechanical, as well as a geographical, discoverer, for to him we are indebted for our modern horses' pack-saddles in lieu of the dreadful old English sumpter horse furniture that went by that name ; he also invented a new kind of compass known as Gregory's Patent, unequalled for steering on horseback, and through dense scrubs where an ordinary compass would be almost useless, while steering on camels in dense scrubs, on a given INTR on UCTION. bearing, without a Gregory would be next to im- possible ; it would be far easier indeed, if not absolutely necessary, to walk and lead them, which has to be done in almost all camel countries. In 1854 Austin made a lengthened journey to the east and northwards, from the old settled places of Western Australia, and in 1856 Augustus Gregory conducted the North Australian Expe- dition, fitted out under the auspices of the Royal Geographical Society of London. Landing at Stokes's Treachery Bay, Gregory and his brother Frank explored Stokes's Victoria River to its sources, and found another watercourse, whose waters, running inland, somewhat revived the old theory of the inland sea. Upon tracing this river, which he named Sturt's Creek, after the father of Australian exploration, it was found to exhaust itself in a circular basin, which was named Termina- tion Lake. Retracing the creek to where the depot was situated, the party travelled across a stretch of unknown country for some two hundred miles, and striking Leichhardt's Port Essington track on Leichhardt's Roper River, his route was followed too closely for hundreds of miles until civilisation was reached. My friend Baron von Mueller ac- companied this expedition as botanist, naturalist, surgeon and physician. Soon after his return from his northern expe- dition, Gregory was despatched in 1858 by the Government of New South Wales to search again for the lost explorer Leichhardt, who had then been missing ten years. This expedition resulted in little or nothing, as far as its main object was con- cerned, one or two trees, marked L, on the Barcoo INTRO D UCTION. and lower end of the Thompson, was all it dis- covered ; but, geographically, it settled the question of the course of the Barcoo, or Mitchell's Victoria, which Gregory followed past Kennedy's farthest point, and traced until he found it identical with Sturt's Cooper's Creek. He described it as being of enormous width in times of flood, and two of Sturt's horses, abandoned since 1845, were seen but left uncaptured. Sturt's Strezletki Creek in South Australian territory was then followed. This pecu- liar watercourse branches out from the Cooper and runs in a south-south-west direction. It brought Gregory safely to the northern settlements of South Australia. The fruitless search for it, however, was one of the main causes of the death of Burke and Wills in 1 86 1. This was Gregory's final attempt ; he accepted the position of Surveyor-General of Queensland, and his labours as an explorer termi- nated. His journals are characterised by a brevity that is not the soul of wit, he appearing to grudge to others the information he had obtained at the expense of great endurance, hardihood, knowledge, and judgment. Gregory was probably the closest observer of all the explorers, except Mitchell, and an advanced geologist. In 1858 a new aspirant for geographical honours appeared on the field in the person of John McDouall Stuart, of South Australia, who, as before mentioned, had formerly been a member of Captain Sturt's Central Australian expedition in 1843-5 ^s draftsman and surveyor. Stuart's object was to cross the continent, almost in its greatest width, from south to north ; and this he eventually accom- plished. After three attempts he finally reached xl INTRODUCTION. the north coast in 1862, his rival Burke having been the first to do so. Stuart might have been first, but he seems to have under-valued his rival, and wasted time in returning and refitting when he might have performed the feat in two if not one journey ; for he discovered a well-watered country the whole way, and his route is now mainly the South Austra- lian Transcontinental Telegraph Line, though it must be remembered that Stuart had something like fifteen hundred miles of unknown country in front of him to explore, while Burke and Wills had scarcely six. Stuart also conducted some minor explorations before he undertook his greater one. He and McKinlay were South Australia's heroes, and are still venerated there accordingly. He died in England not long after the completion of his last expedition. We now come to probably the most melancholy episode in the long history of Australian exploration, relating to the fate of Burke and Wills. The people and Government of the colony of Victoria deter- mined to despatch an expedition to explore Central Australia, from Sturt's Eyre's Creek to the shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria at the mouth of the Albert River of Stokes's, a distance in a straight line of not more than six hundred miles ; and as every- thing that Victoria undertakes must always be on the grandest scale, so was this. One colonist gave ;^iooo; ;^4000 more was subscribed, and then the Government took the matter in hand to fit out the Victorian Exploring Expedition. Camels were specially imported from India, and everything was done to ensure success ; when I say everything, I mean all but the principal thing — the leader was INTRODUCTION. xli the wronof man. He knew nothincr of bush Hfe or bushmanship, navigation, or any art of travel. Robert O'Hara Burke was brave, no doubt, but so hopelessly ignorant of what he was undertaking, that it would have been the greatest wonder if he had returned alive to civilisation. He was accom- panied by a young man named Wills as surveyor and observer ; he alone kept a diary, and from his own statements therein he was frequently more than a hundred miles out of his reckoning. That, however, did not cause his or Burke's death ; what really did so was bad management. The money this expedition cost, variously estimated at from ^40,000 to ^60,000, was almost thrown away, for the map of the route of the expedition was incorrect and unreliable, and Wills's journal of no geographical value, except that it showed they had no dijfficulty with regard to water. The expe- dition was, however, successful in so far that Burke crossed Australia from south to north before Stuart, and was the first traveller who had done so. Burke and Wills both died upon Cooper's Creek after their return from Carpentaria upon the field of their renown. Charles Gray, one of the party, died, or was killed, a day or two before returning thither, and John King, the sole survivor, was rescued by Alfred Howitt. Burke's and Stuart's lines of travel, though both pushing from south to north, were separated by a distance of over 400 miles in longitude. These travellers, or heroes I suppose I ought to call them, were neither explorers nor bushmen, but they were brave and undaunted, and they died in the cause they had undertaken. When it became certain in Melbourne that some xlii INTR OD UC TION. mishap must have occurred to these adventurers, Victoria, South Austraha, and Queensland each sent out rehef parties. South Austraha sent John McK inlay, who found Gray's grave, and afterwards made a long exploration to Carpentaria, where, not finding any vessel as he expected, he had an arduous struggle to reach a Queensland cattle station near Port Dennison on the eastern coast. Queensland sent Landsborough by sea to Carpen- taria, where he was landed and left to live or die as he might, though of course he had a proper equip- ment of horses, men, and gear. He followed up the Flinders River of Stokes, had a fine country to traverse ; got on to the head of the Warrago, and finally on to the Darling River in New South Wales. He came across no traces whatever of Burke. Victoria sent a relief expedition under Walker, with several Queensland black troopers. W^alker, cross- ing the lower Barcoo, found a tree of Leichhardt's marked L, being the most westerly known. Walker arrived at Carpentaria without seeing any traces of the missing Burke and Wills ; but at the mouth of the Albert River met the master of the vessel that had conveyed Landsborough ; the master had seen or heard nothing of Burke. Another expedition fitted out by Victoria, and called the Victorian Contingent Relief Expedition, was placed under the command of Alfred Howitt in 1861. At this time a friend of mine, named Conn, and I were out exploring for pastoral runs, and were in retreat upon the Darling, when we met Howitt going out. When farther north I rejDeatedly urged my com- panion to visit the Cooper, from which we were then only eighty or ninety miles away, in vain. I urged INTRO D UCTION. xliii how we might succour some, if not all, of the wanderers. Had we done so we should have found and rescued King, and we might have been in time to save Burke and Wills also ; but Conn would not agree to go. It is true we were nearly starved as it was, and might have been entirely starved had we gone there, but by good fortune we met and shot a stray bullock that had wandered from the Darling, and this happy chance saved our lives. I may here remark that poor Conn and two other exploring comrades of those days, named Curlewis and McCulloch, were all subsequently, not only killed but partly eaten by the wild natives of Australia — Conn in a place near Cooktown on the Queensland coast, and Curlewis and McCulloch on the Paroo River in New South Wales in 1862. When we were together we had many very narrow escapes from death, and I have had several similar experiences since those days. Howitt on his arrival at Cooper's Creek was informed by the natives that a white man was alive with them, and thus John King, the sole survivor, was rescued. Between 1860-65 several short expeditions were carried on in Western Australia by Frank Gregory, Lefroy, Robinson, and Hunt ; while upon the eastern side of Australia, the Brothers Jardine successfully explored and took a mob of cattle through the region that proved so fatal to Kennedy and his companions in 1848. The Jardines traversed a route more westerly than Kennedy's, along the eastern shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria to Cape York. In 1865, Duncan Mclntyre, while on the Flinders River of Stokes and near the Gulf of Carpentaria, INTRODUCTION. into which it flows, was shown by. a white shepherd at an out sheep station, a tree on which the letter L was cut. This no doubt was one of Landsborough's marks, or if it was really carved by Leichhardt, it was done upon his journey to Port Essington in 1844, when he crossed and encamped upon the Flinders. Mclntyre reported by telegraph to Mel- bourne that he had found traces of Leichhardt, whereupon Baron von Mueller and a committee of ladies in Melbourne raised a fund of nearly ^4000, and an expedition called " The Ladies' Leichhardt Search Expedition," whose noble object was to trace and find some records or mementoes, if not the persons, and discover the last resting-place of the unfortunate traveller and his companions, was placed under Mclntyre's command. About sixty horses and sixteen camels were obtained for this attempt. The less said about this splendid but ill-starred effort the better. Indignation is a mild term to apply to our feelings towards the man who caused the ruin of so generous an undertaking. Everything that its promoters could do to ensure its success they did, and it deserved a better fate, for a brilliant issue might have been obtained, if not by the discovery of the lost explorers, at least by a geographical result, as the whole of the western half of Australia lay unexplored before it. The work, trouble, anxiety, and expense that Baron von Mueller went through to start this expedition none but the initiated can ever know. It was ruined before it even entered the field of its labours, for, like Burke's and Wills's expedition, it was un- fortunately placed under the command of the wrong man. The collapse of the expedition occurred in INTRODUCTION, xlv this wise. A certain doctor was appointed surgeon and second in conimand, the party consisting of about ten men, including two Afghans with the camels, and one young black boy. Their encamp- ment was now at a water-hole in the Paroo, where Curie wis and McCulloch had been killed, in New South Wales. The previous year Mclntyre had visited a water-hole in the Cooper some seventy-four or seventy-five miles from his camp on the Paroo, and now ordered the whole of his heavily-laden beasts and all the men to start for the distant spot. The few appliances they had for carrying water soon became emptied. About the middle of the third day. upon arrival at the wished-for relief, to their horror and surprise they found the w^ater-hole was dry — by no means an unusual thing in Australian travel. The horses were already nearly dead ; Mclnt\re, with- out attempting to search either up or down the channel of the watercourse, immediately ordered a retreat to the last water in the Paroo. After proceeding a few miles he left the horses and white men, seven in number, and went on ahead with the camels, the Afghans and the black boy, saying he would return with water for the others as soon as he could. His brother was one of the party left behind. Almost as soon as i\lclntyre"s back was turned, the doctor said to the men something to the effect that they w^ere abandoned to die of thirst, there not being a drop of water remaining, and that he knew in which packs the medical brandy was stowed, certain bags being marked to indicate them. He then added, " Boys, we must help ourselves ! The Leichhardt Search Expedition is a failure ; follow me. and I'll oet vou somethiuLT to drink." xl vi INTR on UCTION. Taking a knife, he ripped open the marked bags while still on the chokino- horses' backs, and ex- tracted the only six bottles there were. One white man named Barnes, to whom all honour, refused to touch the brandy, the others poured the boiling alcohol down their parched and burning throats, and a wild scene of frenzy, as described by Barnes, ensued. In the meanwhile the unfortunate pack- horses wandered away, loaded as they were, and died in thirst and agony, weighed down by their unremoved packs, none of which were ever re- covered. Thus all the food supply and nearly all the carrying power of the expedition was lost ; the only wonder was that none of these wretches actually died at the spot, although I heard some of them died soon after. The return of Mclntyre and the camels loaded with water saved their lives at the time ; but what was his chagrin and surprise to find the party just where he had left them, nearly dead, most of them delirious, with all the horses gone, when he had expected to meet them so much nearer the Paroo. In consequence of the state these men or animals were in, they had to be carried on the camels, and it was impossible to go in search of the horses ; thus all was lost. This event crushed the expedition. Mclntyre obtained a few more horses, pushed across to the Flinders again, became attacked with fever, and died. Thus the " Ladies' Leichhardt Search Expedition " en- tirely fell through. The camels were subsequently claimed by Mclntyre's brother for the cost of grazing them, he having been carried by them to Carpentaria, where he selected an excellent pastoral property, became rich, and died. It was the same A INTR on UCTION. xlvii doctor that got into trouble witli the Queensland Government concerning the kidnapping of some islanders in the South Seas, and narrowly escaped severe, if not capital, punishment. In 1866, Mr. Cowle conducted an expedition from Roebourne, near Nicol Ba)^ on the West Coast, for four or five hundred miles to the Fitzroy River, discovered by Wickham, at the bottom of King's Sound. In 1869, ^ report having spread in Western Australia of the massacre of some white people by the natives somewhere to the eastwards of Cham- pion Bay, on the west coast, the rumour was supposed to relate to Leichhardt and his party ; and upon the representations of Baron von Mueller to the West Australian Government, a young sur- veyor named John Forrest was despatched to in- vestigate the truth of the story. This expedition penetrated some distance to the eastwards, but could discover no traces of the lost, or indeed anything appertaining to any travellers whatever. In 1869-70, John Forrest, accompanied by his brother Alexander, was again equipped by the West Australian Government for an exploration eastwards, with the object of endeavouring to reach the South Australian settlements by a new route inland. Forrest, however, followed Eyre's track of 1 840- 1, along the shores of the Great Australian Bight, and may be said to have made no explora- tion at all, as he did not on any occasion penetrate inland more than about thirty miles from the coast. At an old encampment Forrest found the skull of one of Eyre's horses, which had been lying there xl viii INTR OD UCTION. for thirty years. This trophy he brought with him to Adelaide. The following year, Alexander Forrest conducted an expedition to the eastwards, from the West Australian settlements ; but only succeeded in pushing a few miles beyond Hunt and Lefroy's furthest point in 1864. What I have written above is an outline of the history of discovery and exploration in Australia when I first took the field in the year 1872 ; and though it may not perhaps be called, as Tenny- son says, one of the fairy tales of science, still it is certainly one of the long results of time. I have conducted five public expeditions and several private ones. The latter will not be recorded in these volumes, not because there were no incidents of interest, but because they were conducted, in connection with other persons, for entirely pastoral objects. Experiences of hunger, thirst, and attacks by hostile natives during those undertakings relieved them of any monotony they might otherwise display. It is, however, to my public expeditions that I shall now confine my narrative. The wild charm and excitinof desire that induce an individual to undertake the arduous tasks that lie before an explorer, and the pleasure and delight of visiting new and totally unknown places, are only whetted by his first attempt, especially when he is constrained to admit that his first attempt had not resulted in his carrying out its objects. My first and second expeditions were conducted entirely with horses ; in all my after journeys I INTRODUCTION. xlix had the services of camels, those wonderful ships of the desert, without whose aid the travels and ad- ventures which are subsequently recorded could not possibly have been achieved, nor should I now be alive, as Byron says, to write so poor a tale, this lowly lay of mine. In my first and second expedi- tions, the object I had in view was to push across the continent, from different starting points, upon the South Australian Transcontinental Telegraph Line, to the settled districts of Western Australia. My first expedition was fitted out entirely by Baron von Mueller, my brother-in-law, Mr. G. D. Gill, and myself. I was joined in this enterprise by a young gentleman, named Samuel Carmichael, whom I met in Melbourne, and who also contributed his share towards the undertaking. The farthest point reached on this journey was about 300 miles from my starting point. On my return, upon reaching the Charlotte Waters Telegraph Station, in lat. 25° 55' and long. 135°, I met Colonel Warburton and his son, whom I had known before. These gentlemen informed me, to my great astonishment, they were about to undertake an exploring expedition to Western Australia, for two well-known capitalists of South Australia, viz. the Hon. Sir Thomas Elder and Captain Hughes, I was also informed that a South Australian Government expedition, for the same purpose, was just in advance of them, under the command of Mr. William C. Gosse. This information took me greatly by surprise, though perhaps an explorer should not admit such a feel- ing. I had just returned from an attempt of the same kind, beaten and disappointed. I felt if ever VOL. I. d INTRODUCTION. I took the field again, against two such formidable rivals as were now about to attempt what I had failed in, both being supplied with camels by Sir Thomas Elder, my chances of competing with them would be small indeed, as I could only command horses, and was not then known to Sir Thomas Elder, the only gentleman in Australia who pos- sessed camels. The fact of two expeditions starting away simul- taneously, almost as soon as I had turned my back upon civilisation, showed me at once that my attempt, I being regarded as a Victorian, had roused the people and Government of South Aus- tralia to the importance of the question which I was the first to endeavour to solve — namely, the ex- ploration of the unknown interior, and the possibility of discovering an overland route for stock through Central Australia, to the settlements upon the western coast. This, I may remark, had been the dream of all Australian explorers from the time of Eyre and Leichhardt down to my own time. It also showed that South Australia had no desire to be beaten again,* and in her own territories, by "worthless Melbourne's puling child;" hence the two new expeditions arose. Immediately upon my return being made known by telegram to my friend Baron von Mueller, he set to work, and with un- wearied exertion soon obtained a new fund from several wealthy gentlemen in the rival colony of Victoria. In consideration of the information I had afforded by my late effort, the Government of South Australia supplemented this fund by the * Burke and Stuart. INTRODUCTION. munificent subsidy of ;^25o, provided I expended the. money in fresh explorations, and supplied to the Government, at the termination of my journey, a copy of the map and journal of my expedition. My poverty, and not my will, consented to accept so mean a gift. As a new, though limited fund was now placed at my disposal, I had no inclination to decline a fresh attempt, and thus my second expe- dition was undertaken ; and such despatch was used by Baron Mueller and myself, that I was again in the field, with horses only, not many weeks later than my rivals. On this journey I was accompanied and seconded by Mr. William Henry Tietkens. We had both been scholars at Christ's Hospital in London, though many years apart. Of the toils and adven- tures of my second expedition the readers of my book must form their own opinion ; and although I was again unsuccessful in carrying out my object, and the expedition ended in the death of one member, and in misfortune and starvation to the others, still I have been told by a few partial friends that it was really a splendid failure. On that ex- pedition I explored a line of nearly 700 miles of previously unknown country, in a straight line from my starting point. During my first and second expeditions I had been fortunate in the discovery of large areas of mountain country, permanently watered and beauti- fully grassed, and, as spaces of enormous extent still remained to be explored, I decided to continue in the field, provided I could secure the use of camels. These volumes will contain the narratives of my lii INTR OJD UCTION. public explorations. In the preface to this work I have given an outline of the physical and colonial divisions of Australia, so that my reader may even- tually follow me, albeit in imagination only, to the starting points of my journeys, and into the field of my labours also. PREFACE. The Island Continent of Australia contains an area of about three millions of square miles, it being, so to say, an elliptically-shaped mass about 2500 miles in length from east to west, and 2000 from north to south. The degrees of latitude and longitude it occupies will be shown by the map accompanying these volumes. The continent is divided into five separate colonies, whose respective capitals are situated several hundreds of miles apart. The oldest colony is New South Wales. The largest in area is Western Australia, next comes South Australia ; then Queensland, New South Wales, and lastly Victoria, which, though the smallest in area, is now the first in importance among the group. It was no wonder that Mitchell, the Surveyor-General of New South Wales, designated that region " Aus- tralia Felix." It may be strange, but it is no less true, that there is almost as great a difference between the fiscal laws and governments of the various Aus- tralian Colonies as between those of foreign States in Europe — the only thing in common being the language and the money of the British Empire. Although, however, they agree to differ amongst liv PREFACE. themselves, there can be no doubt of the loyalty of the group, as a whole, to their parent nation. I shall go no further into this matter, as, although English enough, it is foreign to my subject. I shall treat more especially of the colony or colonies within whose boundaries my travels led me, and shall begin with South Australia, where my first expedition was conducted. South Australia includes a vast extent of country called the Northern Territory, which must become in time a separate colony, as it extends from the 26th parallel of latitude, embracing the whole country northwards to the Indian Ocean at the nth parallel. South Australia possesses one advantage over the other colonies, from the geo- graphical fact of her oblong territory extending, so to speak, exactly in the middle right across the continent from the Southern to the Indian Ocean. The dimensions of the colony are in extreme length over 1800 miles, by a breadth of nearly 700, and almost through the centre of this vast region the South Australian Transcontinental Telegraph line runs from Adelaide, via Port Augusta, to Port Darwin. At the time I undertook my first expedition in 1872, this extensive work had just been com- pleted, and it may be said to divide the continent into halves, which, for the purpose I then had in view, might be termed the explored and the unexplored halves. For several years previous to my taking the field, I had desired to be the first to penetrate into this unknown region, where, for a thousand miles in a straight line, no white man's foot had ever wandered, or, if it had, its owner had PREFACE. Iv never brought it back, nor told the tale. I had ever been a delighted student of the narratives of voyages and discoveries, from Robinson Crusoe to Anson and Cook, and the exploits on land in the brilliant accounts given by Sturt, Mitchell, Eyre, Grey, Leichhardt, and Kennedy, constantly excited my imagination, as my own travels may do that of future rovers, and continually spurred me on to emulate them in the pursuit they had so eminently graced. My object, as indeed had been Leichhardt's, was to force my way across the thousand miles that lay untrodden and unknown, between the South Australian telegraph line and the settlements upon the Swan River. What hopes I formed, what aspirations came of what might be my fortune, for I trust it will be believed that an explorer may be an imaginative as well as a practical creature, to discover in that unknown space. Here let me remark that the exploration of looo miles in Australia is equal to 10,000 in any other part of the earth's surface, always excepting Arctic and Antarctic travels. There was room for snowy mountains, an inland sea, ancient river, and palmy plain, for races of new kinds of men inhabiting a new and odorous land, for fields of gold and golcondas of gems, for a new flora and a new fauna, and, above all the rest com- bined, there was room for me ! Many well-meaning friends tried to dissuade me altoo^ether, and en- deavoured to instil into my mind that what I so ardently wished to attempt was simply deliberate suicide, and to persuade me of the truth of the poetic line, that the sad eye of experience sees Ivi PREFA CE, beneath youth's radiant glow, so that, Hke Falstaff, I was only partly consoled by the remark that they hate us youth. But in spite of their experience, and probably on account of youth's radiant glow, I was not to be deterred, however, and at last I met with Baron von Mueller, who, himself an explorer with the two Gregorys, has always had the cause of Australian exploration at heart, and he assisting, I was at length enabled to take the held. Baron Mueller and I had consulted, and it was deemed advisable that I should make a peculiar feature near the Finke river, called Chambers' Pillar, my point of departure for the west. This Pillar is situated in lat. 24° 55' and long. 133° 50', being 1200 miles from Melbourne in a straight line, over which dis- tance Mr. Carmichael, a black boy, and I travelled. In the course of our travels from Melbourne to the starting point, we reached Port Augusta, a seaport though an inland town, at the head of Spencer's Gulf in South Australia, first visited by the Inves- tigator in 1803, and where, a few miles to the east- wards, a fine bold range of mountains runs along for scores of miles and bears the gallant navigator's name. A railway line of 250 miles now connects Port Augusta with Adelaide. To this town was the first section of the Transcontinental telegraph line carried ; and it was in those days the last place where I could get stores for my expedition. Various telegraph stations are erected along the line, the average distance between each being from 150 to 200 miles. There were eleven stations between Port Augusta and Port Darwin. A railway is now completed as far as the Peake Telegraph Station, about 450 miles north-westwards from Port Augusta PREFACE. Ivii along the telegraph line towards Port Darwin, to which it will no doubt be carried before many years elapse. From Port Augusta the Flinders range runs almost northerly for nearly 200 miles, throwing out numerous creeks,* through rocky pine-clad glens and gorges, these all emptying, in times of flood, into the salt lake Torrens, that peculiar depression which baffled Eyre in 1 840-1. Captain Frome, the Surveyor-General of the Colony, dispelled the old horse-shoe-shaped illusion of this feature, and discovered that there were several similar features instead of one. As far as the Flinders range ex- tends northwards, the water supply of the traveller in that region is obtained from its watercourses. The country beyond, where this long range falls off, continues an extensive open stony plateau or plain, occasionally intersected with watercourses, the course of the line of road being west of north. Most of these watercourses on the plains fall into Lake Eyre, another and more northerly salt depres- sion. A curious limestone formation now occurs, and for some hundreds of miles the whole country is open and studded with what are called mound- springs. These are usually about fifty feet high, and ornamented on the summit with clumps of tall reeds or bulrushes. These mounds are natural artesian wells, through which the water, forced up from below, gushes out over the tops to the level ground, where it forms little water - channels at * I must here remark that throughout this work the word creek will often occur. This is not to be considered in its English acceptation of an inlet from the sea, but, no matter how far inland, it means, in Australia a watercourse. VOL. I. e Iviii PREFACE. which sheep and cattle can water. Some of these mounds have miniature lakes on their summits, where people might bathe. The most perfect mound is called the Blanche Cup, in latitude about 29° 20', and longitude 136° 40'. The water of some of these springs is fresh and good, the Blanche Cup is drinkable, but the gene- rality of them have either a mineral salt- or soda-ish taste ; at first their effect is aperient, but afterwards just the opposite. The water is good enough for animals. The Hon. Sir Thomas Elder's sheep, cattle, horse, and camel station, Beltana, is the first tele- graph station from Port Augusta, the distance being 150 miles. The next is at the Strangways Springs, about 200 miles distant. This station occupies a nearly central position in this region of mound- springs ; it is situated on a low rise out of the surrounding plain ; all around are dozens of these peculiar mounds. The Messrs. Hogarth and War- ren, who own the sheep and cattle station, have springs with a sufficiently strong flow of water to spout their wool at shearing time. The next tele- graph station beyond the Strangways is the Peake, distant 100 miles. About twenty miles northward, or rather north-westward, from the Peake the mound-springs cease, and the country is watered by large pools in stony watercourses and creek beds. These pools are generally not more than twelve to fifteen miles apart. The waters in times of flood run into Lake Eyre, which receives the Cooper and all the flood waters of West and South-western Queensland, and all the drainage from the hundred watercourses of Central South Australia. The PREFACE. lix chief among the latter is the huge artery, the Finke, from the north-west. The Charlotte Waters Station, named after Lady Charlotte Bacon, the lanthe of Byron, which was to be my last outpost of civilisation, is a quadrangular stone building, plastered or painted white, having a corrugated iron roof, and a courtyard enclosed by the two wings of the building, having loop-holes in the walls for rifles and musketry, a cemented water- tank dug under the yard, and tall heavy iron gates to secure the place from attack by the natives. I may here relate an occurrence at a station farther up the line, built upon the same principle. One evening, while the telegraph master and staff were sitting outside the gates after the heat of the day, the natives, knowing that the stand of arms was inside the courtyard, sent some of their warriors to creep unseen inside and slam the gates, so as to prevent retreat. Then from the outside an attempt to massacre was made ; several whites were speared, some were killed on the spot, others died soon after- wards, but the greatest wonder was that any at all escaped. The establishment at the Charlotte Waters stands on a large grassy and pebbly plain, bounded on the north by a watercourse half a mile away. The natives here have always been peaceful, and never displayed any hostility to the whites. From this last station I made my way to Chambers' Pillar, which was to be my actual starting-point for the west. BOOK I VOL. I. MapN° r.S.WeUtr.iui M^Wl f 1 s^iiaiV II /^ ^CcQtuL JicunJ^ cojutS of liti:» worii urt HautsMA tT Stnd. (Jt^ar namts to' Cm^ (V6 r avian \du> «mH ivnva t^L Aartieula, rS of" bnce as soon as "ffil v-ovKcan ve siaruC 'lor Salt Mill— i— M— ^ Australia Twice Traversed, CHAPTER I. FROM 4TII TO 3OTH AUGUST, 1 8 72. Tlie party — Port Augusta — The road — The Peake — Stony plateau -=- Telegraph station — Natives formerly hostile — A new member — Leave the Peake — Black boy deserts — Reach the Charlotte Waters Station — Natives' account of other natives — Leave last outpost — Reach the Finke — A Government party — -A ride v/estward — End of the stony plateau — A sandhill regior —Chambers' Pillar — The Moloch horridus— Thermometer 18° — The Finke — Johnstone's range — A night alarm — Beautiful trees — Wild ducks — -A tributary — High dark hill — Country rises in altitude — Very high sandhills — Quicksands — New ranges — A brush ford — New pigeon — Pointed hill — A clay pan — Christopher's Pinnacle— Chand- ler's Range — Another new range — -Sounds of running water — First natives seen — Name of the river — A Central Australian warrior — Natives burning the country — Name a new creek — Ascend a mountain — Vivid green — Discover a glen and more mountains — Hot winds, smoke and ashes. The personnel of my first expedition into the interior consisted in the first instance of myself, Mr. Carmichael, and a young black boy. I intended to enofaofe the services of another white man at the furthest outpost that I could secure one. From Port Augusta I despatched the bulk of my stores by B 2 4 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. a team to the Peake, and made a leisurely progress up the overland road via Beltana, the Finniss and Strangways Springs stations. Our stores reached the Peake station before us. This station was ori- ginally called Mount Margaret, but subsequently removed to the mound-springs near the south bank of the Peake Creek ; it was a cattle station formed by Mr. Phillip Levi of Adelaide. The character of the country is an open stony plateau, upon which lines of hills or ranges rise ; it is intersected by numerous watercourses, all trending to Lake Eyre, and was an excellent cattle run. The South Austra- lian Government erected the telegraph station in the immediate vicinity of the cattle station. When the cattle station was first formed in 1862 the natives were very numerous and very hostile, but at the time of my visit, ten years later, they were comparatively civilised. At the Peake we were enabled to re-shoe all our horses, for the stony road up from Port Augusta had worn out all that were put on there. I also had an extra set fitted for each horse, rolled up in calico, and marked with its name. At the Peake I engaged a young, man named Alec Robin- son, who, according to his account, could do every- thing, and had been everywhere, who knew the country I was about to explore perfectly well, and who had frequently met and camped with blacks from the west coast, and declared we could easily go over there in a few weeks. He died at one of the telegraph stations a year or two after he left me. I must say he was very good at cooking, and shoeinor horses. I am able to do these useful works myself, but I do not relish either. I had brought a light little spring cart with me all the way from BLA CK BOY DESER TS. Melbourne to the Peake, which I sold here, and my means of transit from thence was with pack-horses. After a rather prolonged sojourn at the Peake, where I received great hospitality from Mr. Blood, of the Telegraph Department, and from Messrs. Bagot, the owners, and Mr. Conway, the manager, we departed for the Charlotte. My little black boy Dick, or, as he used generally to write, and call himself, Richard Giles Kew, 1872, had been at school at Kew, near Melbourne. He came to me from Queensland ; he had visited Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney, and had been with me for nearly three years, but his fears of wild natives were terribly excited by what nearly everybody we met said to him about them. This was not surprising, as it was usually something to this effect, in bush parlance : " By G , young feller, just you look out when you get outside ! The wild blacks will [adjective] soon cook you. They'll kill you first, you know — they zuill like to cut out your kidney fat ! They'll sneak on yer when yer goes out after the horses, they'll have yer and eat yer." This being the burden of the strain continually dinned into the boy's ears, made him so terrified and nervous the farther we got away from civilisation, that soon after leaving the Peake, as we were camping one night with som(i bullock teams returning south, the same stories having been told him over again, he at last made up his mind, and told me he wanted to go back with one of the teamsters ; he had hinted about this before, and both Carmichael and Robinson seemed to be aware of his intention. Force was useless to detain him ; argument was lost on him. AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. and entreaty I did not attempt, so in the morn- ing we parted. I shall mention him again by- and-bye. He was a small, very handsome, light- complexioned, very intelligent, but childish boy, and was frequently mistaken for a half-caste ; he was a splendid rider and tracker, and knew almost everything. He was a great wit, as one remark of his will show. In travelling up the country after he had been at school, we once saw some old deserted native gunyahs, and he said to me as we rode by, pointing to them, " Gentleman's 'ouse, villa residence, I s'pose, he's gone to his watering place for the season p'raps." At another time, being at a place called Crowlands, he asked me why it was called so. I replied, pointing to a crow on a tree, " Why, there's the crow," and stamp- ing with my foot on the ground, "there's the land ; " he immediately said, " Oh, now I know why my country is called Queensland, because it's land belonging to our Queen." I said, " Certainly it is ; " then he said, " Well, ain't it funny ? I never knew that before." In Melbourne, one day, we were leaning out of a window overlooking the people continually passing by. Dick said, " What for, — white fellow always walk about — walk about in town — when he always rides in the bush ? " I said, " Oh, to do their business." " Business," he asked, "what's that?" I said, "Why, to get money, to be sure." " Money," he said ; " white fellow can't pick up money in the street." From the Peake we had only pack-horses and one little Scotch terrier dog. Dick left us at Hann's Creek, thirty miles from the Peake. On our road up, about halfway between the Peake and THE CHARLOTTE WATERS STATION. 7 the Charlotte, we crossed and camped at a large creek which runs into the Finke, called the Alberj^a, Here we met a few natives, who were friendly enough, but who were known to be great thieves, having stolen things from several bullock drays, and committed other robberies ; so we had to keep a sharp look out upon them and their actions. One of their number, a young man, could speak English pretty well, and could actually sing some songs. His most successful effort in that line was the song of "Jim Crow," and he performed the " turn about and wheel about and do just so " part of it until he got giddy, or pretended to be ; and to get rid of him and his brethren, we gave them some flour and a smoke of tobacco, and they departed. We arrived at the Charlotte Waters station on the 4th of August, 1872 ; this was actually my last outpost of civilisation. My companion, Mr. Car- michael, and I were most kindly welcomed by Mr. Johnstone, the officer in charge of this depot, and by Mr. Chandler, a gentleman belonging to a telegraph station farther up the line. In consequence of their kindness, our stay was lengthened to a week. My horses were all the better for the short respite, for they were by no means in good fettle ; but the country having been visited by rains, grass was abundant, and the animals improving. The party consisted only of myself, Carmichael, and Robinson; I could not now obtain another man to make up our original number of four. We still had the little dog. During our stay at the Charlotte I inquired of a number of the natives for information concern- ing the region beyond, to the west and north-west. They often used the words " Larapinta and plenty 8 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. black fellow." Of the country to the west they seemed to know more, but it was very difficult to get positive statements. The gist of their informa- tion was that there were large waters, high moun- tains, and plenty, plenty, wild black fellow ; they said the wild blacks were very big and fat, and had hair growing, as some said, all down their backs ; while others asserted that the hair grew all over their bodies, and that they eat pickaninnies, and sometimes came eastward and killed any of the members of the Charlotte tribe that they could find, and carried off all the women they could catch. On the 1 2th we departed, and my intended starting point being Chambers' Pillar, upon the Finke River, I proceeded up the telegraph road as far as the crossing place of the above-named watercourse, which was sixty miles by the road. In the evening of the day we encamped there, a Government party, under the charge of Mr. McMinn, surveyor, and accompanied by Mr. Harley Bacon, a son of Lady Charlotte Bacon, arrived from the north, and we had their company at the camp. Close to this crossing-place a large tributary joins the Finke near the foot of Mount Humphries. On the following day Mr. McMinn, Mr. Bacon, and I rode up its channel, and- at about twelve miles we found a water-hole and returned. The country con- sisted chiefly of open sandhills well grassed. I mentioned previously that from Port Augusta, northwards and north-westwards, the whole region consists of an open stony plateau, upon which moun- tain ranges stand at various distances ; through and from these, a number of watercourses run, and, on a section of this plateau, nearly 200 miles in extent, CHAMBERS' PILLAR. the curious mound-springs exist. This formation, mostly of limestone, ceases at, or immediately before reaching, the Finke, and then a formation of heavy red sandhills begins. Next day our friends departed for the Charlotte, after making me several presents. From Mr. McMinn I obtained the course and distance of the pillar from our camp, and travelling on the course given, we crossed the Finke three times, as it wound about so snake-like across the country. On the 22nd we encamped upon it, having the pillar in full view. V ■ ■ 1 ' 3'-' '^•JSiS'1' chambers' pillar. The appearance of this feature I should imagine to be unique. For a detailed account of it my reader must consult Stuart's report. Approach- ing the pillar from the south, the traveller must pass over a series of red sandhills, covered with some scrubs, and clothed near the ground with that abominable vegetable production, the so- lO AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. called spinifex or porcupine grass — botanically, the Triodia, or Fcstuca irritaiis. The timber on the sandhills near the pillar is nearly all mulga, a very hard acacia, though a few tall and well - grown casuarinas — of a kind that is new to me, viz., the C. Decaisneana — are occasionally met.* On our route Mr. Carmichael brought to me a most peculiar little lizard, a true native of the soil ; Its colour was a yellowish-green ; it was armed, or ornamented, at points and joints, with spines, in a row along its back, sides, and legs ; these were curved, and almost sharp ; on the back of its neck was a thick knotty lump, with a spine at each side, by which I lifted it ; its tail was armed with spines to the point, and was of proportional length to its body. The lizard was about eight inches in length. Naturalists have christened this harmless little chameleon the Moloch horridus. I put the little ^t:'^^ ^ THE MOLOCH HORRIDUS. creature in a pouch, and intended to preserve it, but it managed to crawl out of its receptacle, and dropped again to its native sand. I had one of these lizards, as a pet, for months in Melbourne. It was finally trodden on and died. It used to eat * These trees have ahiiost a pahii-Uke appearance, and look like huge mops ; but they grow in the driest regions. THE FINKE. ii By this time we were close to the pillar : its outline was most imposing. Upon reaching it, I found it to be a columnar structure, standing upon a pedestal, which is perhaps eighty feet high, and composed of loose white sandstone, having vast numbers of large blocks lying about in all directions. From the centre of the pedestal rises the pillar, composed also of the same kind of rock ; at its top, and for twenty to thirty feet from its summit, the colour of the stone is red. The column itself must be seventy or eighty feet above the pedestal. It is split at the top into two points. There it stands, a vast monument of the geological periods that must have elapsed since the mountain ridge, of which it was formerly a part, was washed by the action of old Ocean's waves into mere sandhills at its feet. The stone is so friable that names can be cut in it to almost any depth with a pocket-knife : so loose, indeed, is it, that one almost feels alarmed lest it should fall while he is scratching at its base. In a small orifice or chamber of the pillar I discovered an opossum asleep, the first I had seen in this part of the country. We turned our backs upon this peculiar monument, and left it in its loneliness and its grandeur — "clothed In white sandstone, mystic, wonderful ! " From hence we travelled nearly west, and in seventeen miles came to some very high sandhills, at whose feet the river swept. We followed round them to a convenient spot, and one where our horses could water without bogging. The bed of the Finke is the most boggy creek- channel I have ever met. As we had travelled several miles in the morning to the pillar, and 12 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. camped eighteen beyond it, it was late in the after- noon when we encamped. The country we passed over was mostly scrubby sandhills, covered with porcupine grass. Where we struck the channel there was a long hole of brine. There was plenty of good grass on the river flat ; and we got some tolerably good water where we fixed our camp. When we had finished our evening meal, the shades of night descended upon us, in this our first bivouac in the unknown interior. By observations of the bright stars Vega and Altair, I found my latitude was 24° 52' 15"; the night was excessively cold, and by daylight next morning the thermometer had fallen to 18°. Our blankets and packs were covered with a thick coating of ice ; and tea left in our pannikins overnight had become solid cakes. The country here being soft and sandy, we un- shod all the horses and carried the shoes. So far as I could discern with the glasses, the river channel came from the west, but I decided to go north-west, as I was sure it would turn more northerly in time ; and I dreaded being caught in a long bend, and having to turn back many miles, or chance the loss of some or all the horses in a boggy crossing. To the south a line of hills appeared, where the natives were burning the spinifex in all directions. These hills had the appearance of red sandstone ; and they had a series of ancient ocean watermarks along their northern face, traceable for miles. This I called Johnstone's Range. As another night approached, we could see, to the north, the brilliant flames of large grass fires, which had only recently been started by some prowling sons of the soil, upon their becoming aware of our presence in their A NIGHT ALARM. 13 domain. The nights now were usually very cold. One night some wild man or beast must have been prowling around our camp, for my little dog Monkey exhibited signs of great perturbation for several hours. We kept awake, listening for some sounds that might give us an idea of the intruders ; and being sure that we heard the tones of human voices, we got our rifles in readiness. The little dog barked still more furiously, but the sounds de- parted : we heard them no more : and the rest of the night passed in silence — in silence and beautiful rest. We had not yet even sighted the Finke, upon my north-west course ; but I determined to continue, and was rewarded by coming suddenly upon it under the foot of high sandhills. Its course now was a good deal to the north. The horses being heavily packed, and the spinifex distressing them so much, we found a convenient spot where the animals could water without bogging, and camped. Hard by, were some clumps of the fine-looking casuarinas ; they grow to a height of twenty to twenty-five feet of barrel without a branch, and then spread out to a fine umbrella top ; they flourish out of pure red sand. The large sheet of water at the camp had wild ducks on it : some of these we shot. The day was very agreeable, with cool breezes from the north- west. A tributary joins the Finke here from the west, and a high dark hill forms its southern embankment : the western horizon is bounded by broken lines of hills, of no great elevation. As we ascend the river, the country gradually rises, and we are here about 250 feet above the level of the Charlotte Waters Station. 14 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. Finding the river now trended not only northerly, but even east of north, we had to go in that direction, passing over some very high sandhills, where we met the Finke at almost riofht anofles. Although the country was quite open, it was impos- sible to see the river channel, even thous^h frino-ed with rows of splendid gum-trees, for any distance, as it became hidden by the high sandhills. I was very reluctant to cross, on account of the frightfully boggy bed of the creek, but, rather than travel several miles roundabout, I decided to try it. We got over, certainly, but to see one's horses and loads sinking bodily in a mass of quaking quicksand is by no means an agreeable sight, and it was only by urging the animals on with stock-whips, to prevent them delaying, that we accomplished the crossing without loss. Our riding horses got the worst of it, as the bed was so fearfully ploughed up by the pack-horses ahead of them. The whole bed of this peculiar creek appears to be a quicksand, and when I say it was nearly a quarter of a mile wide, its formidable nature will be understood. Here a stream of slightly brackish water was trickling down the bed in a much narrower channel, however, than its whole width ; and where the water appears upon the surface, there the bog is most to be apprehended. Sometimes it runs under one bank, sometimes under the opposite, and again, at other places the water occupies the mid-channel. A horse may walk upon apparently firm sand towards the stream, when, without a second's warning, horse and rider may be engulfed in quicksand ; but in other places, where it is firmer, it will quake for yards all round, and thus give some slight warning. A BUSH FORD. 15 Crossing safely, and now having the river on my right hand, we continued our journey, sighting a continuous range of hills to the north, which ran east and west, and with the glasses I could see the river trendino" towards them, I changed my course for a conspicuous hill in this new line, which brought me to the river again at right angles ; and, having so successfully crossed in the morning, I decided to try it again. We de- scended to the bank, and after great trouble found a spot firm enough and large enough to allow all the horses to stand upon it at one time, but we could not find a place where they could climb the opposite bank, for under it was a long reach of water, and a quagmire extending for more than a mile on either side. Two of our riding-horses were badly bogged in trying to find a get-away : finally, we had to cut boucrhs and sticks, and bridgfe the the place over with them. Thus we eventually got the horses over one by one without accident or loss. In four miles we touched on a bend of the river again, but had no occasion to recross, as it was not in our road. This day, having wasted so much time in the crossings, we travelled only fifteen miles. The horizon from this camp was bounded from south- west, and west, round by north, to north-west, by ranges ; which I was not sorry to perceive. Those to the west, and south-west, were the highest and most pointed. It appears that the Finke must come under or throuQrh some of those to the north- west. To-day I observed a most beautiful pigeon, quite new to me ; it was of a dark-brown colour, mottled under the throat and on the breast ; it had also a high top-knot. It is considerably smaller 1 6 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. than the Sturt pigeon of his Central Australian expedition. It was now the 28th of August, and the tempera- ture of the atmosphere was getting warmer. Jour- neying now again about north-west, we reached a peculiar pointed hill with the Finke at its foot. We passed over the usual red sandhill country covered with the porcupine grass, characteristic of the Finke country, and saw a shallow sheet of yellow rain water in a large clay pan, which is quite an unusual feature in this part of the world, clay being so conspicuous by its absence. The hill, when we reached it, assumed the appearance of a hicrh pinnacle ; broken fragments of rock upon its sides and summit showed it too rough and pre- cipitous to climb with any degree of pleasure. I named it Christopher's Pinnacle, after a namesake of mine. The range behind it I named Chandler's Range. For some miles we had seen very little porcupine grass, but here we came into it again, to the manifest disgust of our horses. We had now a line of hills on our right, with the river on our left hand, and in six or seven miles came to the west end of Chandler's Range, and could see to the north and north-west another, and much higher line running parallel to Chandler's Range, but extending to the west as far as I could see. The country hereabouts has been nearly all burnt by the natives, and the horses endeavour to pick roads where the dreaded triodia has been destroyed. We passed a few clumps of casuarinas and a few stunted trees with broad, poplar-like leaves. Travel- ling for twelve miles on this bearing, we struck the Finke again, running nearly north and south. Here FIRST NA TI VES SEEN. 1 7 the river had a stony bed with a fine reach of water in it ; so to-night at least our anxiety as regards the horses bogging is at an end. The stream puding over its stony floor produces a most agreeable sound, such as I have not heard for many a day. Here I might say, " Brightly the brook through the green leaflets, giddy with joyousness, dances alonof." Soon after we had unpacked and let go our horses, we were accosted by a native on the oppo- site side of the creek. Our little dog became furious ; then two natives appeared. We made an attempt at a long conversation, but signally failed, for neither of us knew many of the words the other was saying. The only bit of information I obtained from them was their name for the river — as they kept continually pointing to it and repeating the word Larapinta. This word, among the Peake and Charlotte natives, means a snake, and from the continual serpentine windings of this peculiar and only Central Australian river, no doubt the name is derived. I shot a hawk for them, and they departed. The weather to-day was fine, with agree- able cool breezes ; the sky has become rather over- cast ; the flies are very numerous and troublesome ; and it seems probable we may have a slight fall of rain before long. A few drops of rain fell during the night, which made me regret that I had not had our tarpaulins erected, though no more fell. In the morning there was sultriness in the air though the sky was clear ; the thermometer stood at 52°, and at sunrise a smoky haze pervaded the whole sky. Whilst we were packing up the horses this m.orning, the same VOL. I. C 1 8 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. two natives whom we saw last niofht, acfain made their appearance, bringing with them a third, who was painted, feathered, greased, and red-ochred, in, as they doubtless thought, the most alarming manner. I had just mounted my horse, and rode to- wards them, thinking to get some more information from the warrior as to the course of the creek, &c., but when they saw the horse approaching they scampered off, and the bedizened warrior projected himself into the friendly branches of the nearest tree with the most astonishing velocity. Perceiving that it was useless to try to approach them, without actually running them to earth, we left them ; and crossing the river easily over its stony bed, we con- tinued north-west towards a mountain in the ranges that traversed the horizon in that direction. The river appeared to come from the same spot. A breeze from the north-west caused the dust raised by the pack-horses, which we drove in a mob before us, travelling upon the loose soil where the spinifex had all been lately burnt, to blow directly in our faces. At five miles we struck on a bend of the river, and we saw great volumes of smoke from burning- grass and triodia rising in all directions. The natives find it easier to catch game when the ground is bare, or covered only with a short vegeta- tion, than when it is clothed with thick coarse grasses or pungent shrubs. A tributary from the north, or east of north, joined the Finke on this course, but it was destitute of water at the junction. Soon now the river swept round to the westward, along the foot of the hills we were approaching. Here a tributary from the west joined, having a slender stream of water running along its bed. It A NEW RANGE. 19 was exceedingly boggy, and we had to pass up along it for over two miles before we could find a place to cross to enable us to reach the main stream, now to the north of us. I called this McMinn's Creek. On reaching the Finke we encamped. In the evening I ascended a mountain to the north-west- ward of us. It was very rough, stony, and pre- cipitous, and composed of red sandstone ; its summit was some 800 feet above our camp. It had little other vegetation upon it than huge plots of triodia, of the most beautiful and vivid green, and set with the most formidable spines. Whenever one moves, these spines enter the clothes in all directions, making it quite a torture to walk about among them. From here I could see that the Finke turned up towards these hills through a glen, in a north-westerly direction. Other mountains appeared to the north and north-west ; indeed this seemed to be a range of mountains of great length and breadth. To the eastwards it may stretch to the telegraph line, and to the west as far as the eye could see. The sun had gone down before I had finished taking bearings. Our road to-morrow will be up throuo^h the orlen from which the river issues. All day a most objectionable hot wind has been blowing, and clouds of smoke and ashes from the fires, and masses of dust from the loose soil ploughed up by the horses in front of us, and blowing in our faces, made it one of the most disagreeable days I ever passed. At night, however, a contrast obtained — the wind dropped, and a calm, clear, and beautiful night succeeded to the hot, smoky, and dusty day, Vega alone gave me my latitude here, close to the c 2 20 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. mouth of the glen, as 24° 25' 12"; and, though the day had been so hot and disagreeable, the night proved cold and chilly, the thermometer falling to 24° by daylight, but there was no frost, or even any dew to freeze. A SERPENTINE CHANNEL. CHAPTER II. FROM 3OTH AUGUST TO 6tH SEPTEMBER, 1 872. Milk thistle — In the glen — A serpentine and rocky road — Name a new creek — Grotesque hills — Caves and caverns — Cypress pines — More natives — Astonish them — Agreeable scenery — Sentinel stars — Pelicans— Wild and picturesque scenery — More natives — Palm-trees — A junction in the glen — High ranges to the north — Palms and flowers — The Glen of Palms — Slight rain — Rain at night — Plant various seeds — End of the glen — Its length — Krichauff Range — The northern range — Level country between — A gorge — A flooded channel — Cross a western tributary — Wild ducks — Ramble among the mountains — Their altitude — A splendid panorama — Progress stopped by a torrent and impassable gorge. Our start this morning was late, some of our horses having wandered in the night, the feed at the camp not being very good ; indeed the only green herb met by us, for some consider- able distance, has been the sow or milk thistle {SoiicJms olcraceus), which grows to a considerable height. Of this the horses are extremely fond ; it is also very fattening. Entering the mouth of the glen, in two miles we found ourselves fairly enclosed by the hills, which shut In the river on both sides. We had to follow the windings of the serpentine channel ; the mountains occasionally forming steep precipices overhanging the stream, first upon one side, then upon the other. We often had to lead the horses separately over huge ledges 2 2 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. of rock, and frequently had to cut saplings and lever them out of the way, continually crossing and recrossing the river. On camping in the glen we had only made good eleven miles, though to ac- complish this we had travelled more than double the distance. At the camp a branch creek came out of the mountains to the westwards, which I named Phillip's Creek, The whole of this line of ranges is composed of red sandstone in large or small fragments, piled up into the most grotesque shapes. Here and there caves and caverns exist in the sides of the hills. A few trees of the cypress pine {Callitris) were seen upon the summits of the higher mounts. The hills and country generally inside this glen are more fertile than those outside, having real grass instead of triodia upon their sides. I saw two or three natives just before camping ; they kept upon the opposite side of the water, according to a slight weakness of theirs. Just at the time I saw them, I had my eye on some ducks upon the water in the river bed, I therefore determined to kill two birds with one stone ; that is to say, to shoot the ducks and astonish the natives at the same time. I got behind a tree, the natives I could see were watching me most intently the while, and fired. Two ducks only were shot, the remainder of the birds and the natives, apparently, flying away together. Our travels to-day were very agreeable ; the day was fine, the breezes cool, and the scenery continually changing, the river taking the most sinuous wind- ings imaginable ; the bed of it, as might be expected in such a glen, is rough and stony, and the old fear of the horses begging has departed from us. By NATIVES IM THE GLEN. 23 bearings back upon hills at the mouth of the glen I found our course was nearly north 23° west. The night was clear and cold ; the stars, those sentinels of the sky, appeared intensely bright. To the ex- plorer they must ever be objects of admiration and love, as to them he is indebted for his guidance throuofh the untrodden wilderness he is traversine. "And sweet it is to watch them in the eveninij skies weeping dew from their gentle eyes." Several hun- dred pelicans, those antediluvian birds, made their appearance upon the water early this morning, but seeing us they flew away before a shot could be fired. These birds came from the north-west ; in- deed, all the aquatic birds that I have seen upon the wing, come and go in that direction. I am in hopes of getting through this glen to-day, for how- ever wild and picturesque the scenery, it is very difficult and bad travelling for the unshod horses ; consequently it is difficult to get them along. There was no other road to follow than the windings of the river bed through this mountain-bound glen, in the same manner as yesterday. Soon after starting, I observed several natives ahead of us ; immedi- ately upon their discovering us they raised a great outcry, which to our ears did not exactly resemble the agreeable vibration of a melodious sound, it being quite the opposite. Then of course signal fires were made which raised great volumes of smoke, the natives thinking perhaps to intimidate and prevent us from farther advance. Neither of these effects was produced, so their next idea was to depart themselves, and they ran ahead of us up the glen. I also saw another lot of some twenty or thirty scudding away over the rocks and stony 24 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. hills — these were probably the women and children. Passing their last night's encampment, we saw that they had left all their valuables behind them — these we left untouched. One old gentleman sought the security of a shield of rock, where this villain upon earth and fiend in upper air most vehemently apos- trophised us, and probably ordered us away out of his territory. To the command in itself we paid little heed, but as it fell in with our own ideas, we endeavoured to carry it out as fast as possible. This, I trust, was satisfactory, as I always like to do what pleases others, especially when it coincides with my own views. " It's a very fine thing, and delightful to see Inclination and duty both join and agree." Some of the natives near him threatened us with their spears, and waved knobbed sticks at us, but we departed without any harm being done on either side. Soon after leaving the natives, we had the gratifi- cation of discovering a magnificent specimen of the Fan palm, a species of Livistona, allied to one in the south of Arnhiem's Land, and now distinguished as the Maria Palm (Baron von Mueller), growing in the channel of the watercourse with flood drifts against its stem. Its dark-hued, dome-shaped frondage contrasted strangely with the paler green foliage of the eucalyptus trees that surrounded it. It was a perfectly new botanical feature to me, nor did I expect to meet it in this latitude. " But there's a wonderful power in latitude, it alters a man's moral relations and attitude." I had noticed some strange vegetation in the dry flood drifts lower A PALM TREE. 25 down, and was on the thing new, but I did not fine tree was sixty feet the barrel. Passing the amongst the defiles of which appears to have no signs of a break or tinuation of the rangre from any of the hills I It was late in the left the palm - groves, veiled over twenty miles only make twelve good though this glen was the purling of the stony bed was al- ful sound to me ; ,s»,...»jK'?.\r wmds of evenmg '" '"'"' ~">^ fanned us to re- THE PALM-TREE FOUND IN THE GLEM OF PALMS. pose, it seemed as though some kindly spirit whis- qtd vive for some- know what. This long, or high, in palms, we continued this mountain glen, no termination, for anything but a con- could be observed ascended. afternoon when we and though we tra- ^ in distance could ;| from last camp. Al- ^ rough and rocky, yet t| water over its r|p ways a delight- ^'^\]1\ 2i^^ when the 26 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. pered that it would guard us while we slept, and when the sun declined the swift stream echoed on. The following day being Sunday, the ist Sep- tember, I made it a day of rest, for the horses at least, whose feet were getting sore from continued travel over rocks and boulders of stone. I made an excursion into the hills, to endeavour to discover when and where this apparently interminable glen ceased, for with all its grandeur, picturesqueness, and variety, it was such a difficult road for the horses, that I was getting heartily tired of it ; besides this, I feared this range might be its actual source, and that I should find myself eventually blocked and stopped by impassable water-choked gorges, and that I should finally have to retreat to where I first entered it. I walked and climbed over several hills, cliffs, and precipices, of red sandstone, to the west of the camp, and at length reached the summit of a pine-clad mountain considerably higher than any other near it. Its elevation was over looo feet above the level of the surrounding country. From it I obtained a view to all points of the compass except the west, and CDuld descry mountains, from the north-east round by north to the north-north- west, at which point a very high and pointed mount showed its top above the others in its neighbour- hood, over fifty miles away. To the north and east of north a massive chain, with many dome-shaped summits, was visible. Below, towards the camp, I could see the channel of the river where it forced its way under the perpendicular sides of the hills, and at a spot not far above the camp it seemed split in two, or rather was joined by another water- course from the northwards. From the junction THE GLEN OF PALMS. 27 the course of the main stream was more directly from the west. Along the course of the tributary at about ten miles I could see an apparently open piece of country, and with the glasses there ap- peared a sheet of water upon it. I was glad to find a break in the chain, though it was not on the line I should travel. Returning to my companions, I imparted to them the result of my observations. On Monday, the 2nd, there was a heaviness in the atmosphere that felt like approaching rain. The thermometer during the night had not fallen below 60°, over 40° higher than at our first night's camp from the pillar. To-day, again following the mazy windings of the glen, we passed the northern tributary noticed yesterday, and continued on over rocks, under precipices, crossing and re-crossing the channel, and turning to all points of the compass, so that nearly three miles had to be travelled to make good one. Clumps of the beautiful palms were occasionally passed, growing mostly in the river bed, and where they appear, they considerably enliven the scenery. During my sojourn in this glen, and indeed from first startinof, I collected a great number of most beautiful flowers, which grow in profusion in this otherwise desolate glen. I was literally surrounded by fair flowers of every changing hue. Why Nature should scatter such floral gems upon such a stony sterile region it is difficult to understand, but such a variety of lovely flowers of every kind and colour I had never met with previously. Nature at times, indeed, delights in contrasts, for here exists a land " where bright flowers are all scentless, and songless bright birds." The flowers alone would have induced me to name this Glen Flora ; but having found in 2 8 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. it also so many of the stately palm trees, I have called it the Glen of Palms. Peculiar indeed, and romantic too, is this new-found watery glen, en- closed by rocky walls, " Where dial-like, to portion time, the palm-tree's shadow falls." While we were travelling to-day, a few slight showers fell, giving us warning in their way that heavier falls might come. We were most anxious to reach the northern mouth of the glen if possible before night, so heartily tired were we of so con- tinuously serpentine a track ; we therefore kept pushing on. We saw several natives to-day, but they invariably fled to the fastnesses of their moun- tain homes, they raised great volumes of smoke, and their strident vociferations caused a dull and buzzinof sound even when out of ear-shot. The pattering of the rain-drops became heavier, yet we kept on, hoping at every turn to see an opening which would free us from our prison-house ; but night and heavier rain together came, and we were compelled to remain another night in the palmy glen. I found a small sloping, sandy, firm piece of ground, probably the only one in the glen, a little off from the creek, having some blood-wood or red gum-trees growing upon it, and above the reach of any flood-mark — for it is necessary to be careful in selecting a site on a watercourse, as, otherwise, in a single instant everything might be swept to destruc- tion. We were fortunate indeed to find such a refuge, as it was large enough for the horses to graze on, and there was some good feed upon it. By the time we had our tarpaulins fixed, and every- thing under cover, the rain fell in earnest. The tributary passed this morning was named Ellery's PLANT GARDEN SEEDS. 29 Creek. The actual distance we travelled to-day was eighteen miles ; to accomplish this we travelled from morn till night. Although the rain continued at intervals all night, no great quantity fell. In the morning the heavens were clear towards the south, but to the north dense nimbus clouds covered the hills and darkened the sky. Not removing the camp, I took another ramble into the hills to the east of the camp, and from the first rise I saw what I was most anxious to see, that is to say, the end, or rather the beginning of the glen, which occurred at about two miles beyond our camp. Beyond that the Finke came winding from the north-west, but clouds obscured a distant view. It appeared that rain must still be falling north of us, and we had to seek the shelter of our canvas home. At midday the whole sky became overclouded, rain came slowly down, and when the night again descended heavier still was then the fall. At an hour after daylight on the morrow the greatest volume fell, and continued for several hours. At midday it held up sufficiently to enable me to plant some seeds of various trees, plants, vegetables, &c., given me specially by Baron von Mueller. Among these were blue gum (tree), cucumbers, melons, culinary vegetables, white maize, prairie grass, sorghum, rye, and wattle-tree seeds, which I soaked before planting. Although the rain lasted thirty-six hours in all, only about an inch fell. It was with great pleasure that at last, on the 5th, we left the glen behind us, and in a couple of miles debouched upon a plain, which ran up to the foot of this line of ranges. The horses seemed to be especially pleased to be on soft ground again. The length of this 30 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. glen is considerable, as it occupies 31' of latitude. The main bearing of it is nearly north 25° west ; it is the longest feature of the kind I ever tra- versed, being over forty miles straight, and over a hundred miles of actual travelling, and it appeared the only pass through the range, which I named the Krichauff, To the north a higher and more im- posing chain existed, apparently about twenty miles away. This northern chain must be the western portion of the McDonnell Range. The river now is broader than in the glen ; its bed, however, is stony, and not boggy, the country level, sandy, and thinly timbered, mostly all the vegetation being burnt by grass fires set alight by the natives. Travelling now upon the right bank of this stream, we cut off most of the bends, which, however, were by no means so extensive or so serpentine as in the glen or on the south side of it. Keeping near the river bank, we met but little porcupine grass for the most part of the day's stage, but there was abundance of it further off. The river took us to the foot of the big mountains, and we camped about a mile below a gorge through which it issues. As we neared the new hills, we became aware that the late rains were raising the waters of the river. At six miles before camping we crossed a tributary joining the Finke at right angles from the west, where there are some ranges in that direction ; a slight stream was running down the bed. My next anxiety is to discover where this river comes from, or whether its sources are to be found in this chain. The day was delightfully fine and cool, the breezes seemed to vibrate the echo of an air which Music, sleeping at A SPLENDID PANORAMA. 31 her instrument, had ceased to play. The ground is soft after the late rains. I said we camped a mile below a gorge ; at night I found my position to be in latitude 23° 40', and longitude 132^ 31', the variation 3° east. We shot a few ducks, which were very fat and good. This morning I took a walk into the hills to discover the best route to take next. The hiofh ranches north seem to be formed of three separate lines, all running east and west ; the most northerly being the highest, rising over 2000 feet above the level of the surrounding country, and, according to my barometrical and boiling-point measurements, I found that at the Charlotte Waters I was 900 feet above the sea. From that point up to the foot of these mountains the country had steadily risen, as we traced the Finke, over 1000 feet, so that the highest points of that range are over 4000 feet above sea level ; the most southerly of the three lines is composed of sand- stone, the middle and highest tiers I think change to granite. I climbed for several hours over masses of hills, but always found one just a little farther on to shut out the view. At length I reached the summit of a high round mountain in the middle tier, and a most varied and splendid panorama was spread before me, or I was spread before it. To the north was the main chain, composed for the most part of individual high mounts, there being a valley between them and the hill I was on, and meandering along through this valley from the west I could trace the course of the Finke by its timber for some miles. To the east a mass of hio^h and jumbled hills appeared, and one bluff-faced mount was more conspicuous than the rest. Nearer 32 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. to me, and almost under my feet, was the gorge through which the river passes, and it appears to be the only pass through this chain. I approached the precipice overlooking the gorge, and found the channel so flooded by the late rains, that it was impossible to get the horses up through it. The hills which enclosed it were equally impracticable, and it was utterly useless to try to get horses over them. The view to the west was gratifying, for the ranges appeared to run on in undiminished height in that direction, or a little north of it. From the face of several of the hills I climbed to-day, I saw streams of pure water running, probably caused by the late rains. One hill I passed over I found to be composed of pudding- stone, that is to say, a conglomeration of many kinds of stone mostly rounded and mixed up in a mass, and formed by the smothered bubblings of some ancient and ocean-quenched volcano. The surface of the place now more particularly men- tioned had been worn smooth by the action of the passage of water, so that it presented the appear- ance of an enormous tessellated pavement, before which the celebrated Roman one at Bognor, in Sussex, which I remember, when I was a boy, on a visit to Goodwood, though more artistically but not more fantastically arranged, would be compelled to hide its diminished head. In the course of my rambles I noticed a great quantity of beautiful flowers upon the hills, of similar kinds to those collected in the Glen of Palms, and these interested me so greatly, that the day passed before I was aware, and I was made to remember the line, "How noiseless falls the foot of Time that only I A PATIENT SLAVE. 33 treads on flowers." I saw two kangaroos and one rock wallaby, but they were too wild to allow me to approach near enough to get a shot at them. When I said I walked to-day, I really started on an old favourite horse called Cocky, that had carried me for years, and many a day have I had to thank him for (jettino; me out of difficulties through his splendid powers of endurance. I soon found the hills too rough for a horse, so fixing up his bridle, I said, " Now you stop there till I come back." I believe he knew everything I said, for I used frequently to talk to him. When I came back at night, not thinking he would stay, as the other horses were all feeding within half a mile of him, there he was just as I had left him. I was quite inclined to rest after my scrambles in the hills. During the night nothing occurred to disturb our slumbers, which indeed were aided by the sounds of the rippling stream, which sang to us a soothing sonof. VOL. I. D 34 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. CHAPTER III. FROM 6th SEPTEMBER TO I /TH SEPTEMBER, 1872. Progress stopped — Fall back on a tributary — River flooded — A new range — Rudall's Creek — Reach the range — Grass-trees — Wild beauty of scene — Scarcity of water — A pea-like vetch — Name the range — A barren spot — Water seen from it- Follow a creek channel — Other creeks join it — A confined glen — Scrubby and stony hills — Strike a gum creek— Slimy water — A pretty tree — Flies troublesome — Emus — An orange tree — Tropic of Capricorn — Melodious sounds — Carmichael's Creek — Mountains to the north — Ponds of water — A green plain — Clay-pan water — Fine herbage — Kangaroos and emus numerous — A new tree — Agreeable encampment — Peculiar mountains — High peak — ^Start to ascend it — Game plentiful — Racecourse plain — Surrounded by scrubs — A bare slope — A yawning chasm — Appearance of the peak — Gleaming pools — Cypress pines — The tropic clime of youth — Proceed westwards — Thick scrubs — Native method of procuring water — A pine-clad hill — A watercourse to the south — A poor supply of water- — Skywards the only view — Horses all gone — Increasing temperature — Attempt ascend- ing high bluff — Timberless mountains — Beautiful flowers — Sultry night — Wretched encampment — Depart from it. I HAD come to the decision, as it was impossible to follow the Finke through the gorge in conse- quence of the flood, and as the hills were equally impracticable, to fall back upon the tributary I had noticed the day before yesterday as joining the river from the west, thinking I might in twenty or thirty miles find a gap in the northern range that would WILD BEA UTY OF THE SCENE, 35 enable me to reach the Finke again. The night was very cold, the thermometer at daylight stood at 28°. The river had risen still higher in the night, and it was impossible to pass through the gorge. We now turned west-south-west, in order to strike the tributary. Passing first over rough stony ridges, covered with porcupine grass, we entered a sandy, thickly-bushed country, and struck the creek in ten miles. A new range lying west I expected to be the source of it, but it now seemed to turn too much to the south. There was very poor grass, it being old and dry, but as the new range to the west was too distant, we encamped, as there was water. This watercourse was called Rudall's Creek. A cold and very dewy night made all our packs, blankets, &c., wet and clammy; the mercury fell below freezing point, but instantly upon the sun's appearance it went up enormously. The horses rambled, and it was late when we reached the western range, as our road was beset by some miles of dense scrubs. The range was isolated, and of some elevation. As we passed along the creek, the slight flood became slighter still ; it had now nearly ceased running. The day was one of the warmest we had yet experienced. The creek now seemed not to come from the range, but, thinking water might be got there so soon after rains, we travelled up to its foot. The country was sandy, and be- decked with triodia, but near the range I saw for the first time on this expedition a quantity of the Australian grass-tree {XantJiorrhcsa) dotting the landscape. They were of all heights, from two to twenty feet. The country round the base of this range is not devoid of a certain kind of wild beauty. D 2 36 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. A few blood-wood or red gum-trees, with their brilliant green foliage, enlivened the scene. A small creek, lined with gum-trees, issued from an opening or glen, up which I rode in search of water, but was perfectly unsuccessful, as not a drop of the life-sustaining fluid was to be found. Upon returning to impart this discouraging intelligence to my companions, I stumbled upon a small quantity in a depression, on a broad, almost square boulder of rock that lay in the bed of the creek. There was not more than two quarts. As the horses had watered in the afternoon, and as there was a quantity of a herb, much like a green vetch or small pea, we encamped. I ascended a small eminence to the north, and with the glasses could distinguish the creek last left, now running east and west. I saw water gleaming in its channel, and at the junction of the little creek we were now on ; there was also water nearly east. As the horses were feeding down the creek that way, I felt sure they would go there and drink in the night. It is, however, very stranofe whenever one wants horses to do a certain thing or feed a certain way, they are almost sure to do just the opposite, and so it was in the present case. On returning to camp by a circuitous route, I found in a small rocky crevice an additional sup- ply of water, sufficient for our own requirements — there was nearly a bucketful — -and felicity reigned in the camp. A few cypress pines are rooted in the rocky shelving sides of the range, which is not of such elevation as it appeared from a distance. The highest points are not more than from 700 to 800 feet. I collected some specimens of plants, which, however, are not peculiar to this GOSSE'S RANGE. 37 range. I named it Gosse's Range, after Mr. Harry Gosse. The late rains had not visited this isolated mass. It is barren and covered with spinifex from turret to basement, wherever sufficient soil can be found among the stones to admit of its growth. The night of the 9th of September, like the pre- ceding, was cold and dewy. The horses wandered quite in the wrong direction, and it was eleven o'clock before we got away from the camp and went north to the sheet of water seen yesterday, where we watered the horses and followed up the creek, as its course here appeared to be from the west. The country was level, open, and sandy, but covered with the widely pervading triodia {irritans). Some more Xanthorrhcua were seen, and several small creeks joined this from the ranges to the north. Small sheets of water were seen in the creek as we passed along, but whether they existed before the late rains is very problematical. The weather is evidently getting warmer. We had been following this creek for two days ; it now turned up into a confined glen in a more northerly direction. At last its northern course was so pronounced we had to leave it, as it evidently took its rise amongst the low hills in that direction, which shut out any view of the higher ranges behind them. Our road was now about west-north-west, over wretched, stony, barren, mallee- {Eucalyptus) covered low hills or stony rises ; the mallee scrub being so thick, it was difficult to drive the horses through it. Farther on we crested the highest ground the horses had yet passed over. From here with the glasses I fancied I saw the timber of a creek in a valley to 425S84 38 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. the north-west, in which direction we now went, and struck the channel of a small dry watercourse, whose banks were lined with gum-trees. When there is any water in its channel, its flow is to the west. The creek joined another, in which, after following it for a mile or two, I found a small pool of water, which had evidently lain there for many months, as it was half slime, and drying up fast. It was evident the late rains had not fallen here. In consequence of the windings of the creeks, we travelled upon all points of the compass, but our main course was a little west of north-west. The day was warm enough, and when we camped we felt the benefit of what shade the creek timber could afford. Some of the small vetch, or pea-like plant, of which the horses are so fond, existed here. To-day we saw a single quandong tree i^Fusaims ; one of the sandal woods, but not of commerce) in full bearing, but the fruit not yet ripe. I also saw a pretty drooping acacia, whose leaves hung in small bunches together, giving it an elegant and pendulous appearance. This tree grows to a height of fifty feet ; and some were over a foot through in the barrel. The flies to-day were exceedingly troublesome : a sure sign of increasing temperature. We saw some emus, but being continually hunted by the natives, they were too shy to allow us to get within shot of them. Some emu steaks would come in very handy now. Near our pool of slime a so-called native orange tree [Capparis), of a very poor and stunted habit, grew ; and we allowed it to keep on growing. The stars informed me, in the night, that I was I CARMICHAELS CREEK. 39 almost under the tropic line, my latitude being 23° 29'. The horses fed well on the purple vetch, their bells melodiously tinkling in the air the whole night long. The sound of the animals' bells, in the night, is really musical to the explorer's ear. I called the creek after Mr. Carmichael ; and hoping it would contain good water lower down, decided to follow it, as it trended to the west. We found, however, in a few miles, it went considerably to the south of west, when it eventually turned up again to the north-west. We still had the main line of mountains on our right, or north of us : and now, to the south, another line of low hills trended up towards them ; and there is evidently a kind of gap between the two lines of ranges, about twenty-five miles off. The country along the banks of Carmichael's Creek was open and sandy, with plenty of old dry grass, and not much triodia ; but to the south, the latter and mallee scrub approached somewhat near. We saw several small ponds of water as we passed along, but none of any size. In seven or eight miles it split into several channels, and eventually exhausted itself upon an open grassy swamp or plain. The little plain looked bright and green. I found some rain water, in clay pans, upon it. A clay pan is a small area of ground, whose top soil has been washed or blown away, leaving the hard clay exposed ; and upon this sur- face, one, two, three, or (scarcely) more inches of rain water may remain for some days after rain : the longer it remains the thicker it gets, until at last it dries in cakes which shine like tiles ; these at length crumble away, and the clay pan is swept by winds clean and ready for the next shower. In the course 40 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. of time it becomes enlarged and deepened. They are very seldom deep enough for ducks. The orrass and herbao^e here were excellent. There were numerous kangaroos and emus on the plain, but they preferred to leave us in undisturbed possession of It. There were many evidences of native camping places about here ; and no doubt the natives look upon this little circle as one of their happy hunting grounds. To-day I noticed a tree in the mallee very like a Currajong tree. This being the most agreeable and fertile little spot I had seen, we did not shift the camp, as the horses were in clover. Our little plain is bounded on the north by peculiar mountains ; it is also fringed with scrub nearly all round. The appearance of the northern mountains is singular, grotesque, and very difficult to describe. There appear to be still three distinct lines. One ends in a bluff, to the east- north-east of the camp ; another line ends in a bluff to the north-north-east ; while the third continues along the northern horizon. One point, higher than the rest in that line, bears north 26° west from camp. The middle tier of hills is the most strange-looking ; it recedes in the distance eastwards, in almost regular steps or notches, each of them being itself a bluff, and all overlooking a valley. The bluffs have a circular curve, are of a red colour, and in per- spective appear like a gigantic flat stairway, only that they have an oblique tendency to the south- ward, caused, I presume, by the wash of ocean currents that, at perhaps no greatly distant geo- logical period, must have swept over them from the north. My eyes, however, were mostly bent upon the high peak in the northern line ; and Mr. Car- A RACE-COURSE. 41 michael and I decided to walk over to, and ascend it. It was apparently not more than seven or eight miles away. As my reader is aware, I left the Finke issuing through an impracticable gorge in these same ranges, now some seventy-five miles behind us, and in that distance not a break had occurred in the line whereby I could either get over or through it, to meet the Finke again ; indeed, at this distance it was doubtful whether it were worth while to endeavour to do so, as one can never tell what change may take place, in even the largest of Australian streams, in such a distance. When last seen, it was trending along a valley under the foot of the highest of three tiers of hills, and coming from the west ; but whether its sources are in those hills, or that it still runs on somewhere to the north of us, is the question which I now hope to solve. I am the more anxious to rediscover the Finke, if it still exists, because water has been by no means plentiful on the route along which I have lately been travelling ; and I believe a better country exists upon the other side of the mountains. At starting, Carmichael and I at first walked across the plain, we being encamped upon its southern end. It was beautifully grassed, and had good soil, and it would make an excellent race- course, or ground for a kangaroo hunt. We saw numbers of kangaroos, and em.us too, but could get no shots at them. In three miles the plain ended in thick, indeed very dense, scrub, which continued to the foot of the hills ; in it the grass was long, dry, and tangled with dead and dry burnt sticks and timber, making it exceedingly difficult to walk 42 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. through. Reaching the foot of the hills, I found the natives had recently burnt all the vegetation from their sides, leaving the stones, of which it was composed, perfectly bare. It was a long distance to the top of the first ridge, but the incline was easy, and I was in great hopes, if it continued so, to be able to get the horses over the mountains at this spot. Upon arriving at the top of the slope, I was, however, undeceived upon that score, for we found the high mount, for which we were steering, completely separated from us by a yawning chasm, which lay, under an almost sheer precipice, at our feet. The high mountain beyond, near the crown, was girt around by a solid wall of rock, fifty or sixty feet in height, from the edge of which the summit rose. It was quite unapproachable, except, perhaps, in one place, round to the northward. The solid rock of which it had formerly been composed had, by some mighty force of nature, been split into innumerable fissures and fragments, both perpendicularly and horizontally, and was almost mathematically divided into pieces or squares, or unequal cubes, simply placed upon one another, like masons' work without mortar. The lower strata of these divisions were large, the upper tapered to pieces not much larger than a brick, at least they seemed so from a distance. The whole appearance of this singular mount was grand and awful, and I could not but reflect upon the time when these colossal ridges were all at once rocking in the convulsive tremblings of some mighty volcanic shock, which shivered them into the fragments I then beheld. I said the hill we had ascended ended abruptly in a precipice ; by going farther 1 THE TROPIC CLIME OF YOUTH. 43 round we found a spot, which, though practicable, was difficult enough to descend. At the bottom of some of the ravines below I could see several small pools of water gleaming in little stony gullies. The afternoon had been warm, if not actually hot, and our walking and climbing had made us thirsty ; the sight of water made us all the more so. It was now nearly sundown, and it would be useless to attempt the ascent of the mountain, as by the time we could reach its summit, the sun would be far below the horizon, and we should obtain no view at all. It was, however, evident that no gap or pass existed by which I could get my horses up, even if the country beyond were ever so promising. A few of the cypress or Australian pines {Callitris) dotted the summits of the hills, they also grew on the sides of some of the ravines below us. We had, at least I had, considerable difficulty in descending the almost perpendicular face to the water below. Carmichael got there before I did, and had time to sit, laving his feet and legs in a fine little rock hole full of pure water, filled, I suppose, by the late rains. The water, indeed, had not yet ceased to run, for it was trickling from hole to hole. Upon Mr. Carmichael inquiring what delayed me so long, I replied : " Ah, it is all very easy for you ; you have two circumstances in your favour. You are young, and therefore able to climb, and besides, you are in the tropic." To which he very naturally replies, " If am in the tropic you must be also." I benignly answer, " No, you are in the tropic clime of youth." While on the high ground no view of any kind, except along the mountains for 44 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. a mile or two east and west, could be obtained. I was greatly disappointed at having such a toilsome walk for so little purpose. We returned by a more circuitous route, eventually reaching the camp very late at night, thoroughly tired out with our walk. I named this mountain Mount Musgrave. It is nearly 1 700 feet above the level of the surrounding country, and over 3000 feet above the sea. The next day Mr. Carmichael went out to shoot game ; there were kangaroos, and in the way of birds there were emus, crows, hawks, quail, and bronze- winged pigeons ; but all we got from his expedition was nil. The horses now beinor somewhat refreshed by our stay here, we proceeded across the little plain towards another high bluff hill, which loomed over the surrounding country to the west-north-west. Flies were troublesome, and very busy at our eyes ; soon after daylight, and immediately after sunrise, it became quite hot. Traversing first the racecourse plain, we then entered some mulga scrub ; the mulga is an acacia, the wood extremely hard. It grows to a height of twenty to thirty feet, but is by no means a shady or even a pretty tree ; it ranges over an enormous extent of Australia. The scrub we now entered had been recently burnt near the edge of the plain ; but the further we got into it, the worse it became. At seven miles we came to stones, triodia, and mallee, a low eucalyptus of the gum- tree family, growing generally in thick clumps from one root : its being rooted close together makes it difficult travelling to force one's way through. It grows about twenty feet high. The higher grade of eucalypts or gum-trees delight in water and a ROOT WATER. 45 good soil, and nearly always line the banks of watercourses. The eucalypts of the mallee species thrive in deserts and droughts, but contain water in their roots which only the native inhabitants of the country can discover. A white man would die of thirst while digging and fooling around trying to get the water he might know was preserved by the tree, but not for him ; while an aboriginal, upon the other hand, coming to a mallee-tree, after perhaps travellino; miles throua["h them without noticinof one, will suddenly make an exclamation, look at a tree, go perhaps ten or twelve feet away, and begin to dig. In a foot or so he comes upon a root, which he shakes upwards, gradually getting more and more of it out of the ground, till he comes to the foot of the tree ; he then breaks it off, and has a root perhaps fifteen feet long — this, by the way, is an extreme length. He breaks the root into sections about a foot long, ties them into bundles, and stands them up on end in a receptacle, when they drain out a quantity of beautifully sweet, pure water. A very long root such as I have men- tioned might give nearly a bucketful of water ; but woe to the white man who fancies he can get water out of mallee. There are a few other trees of different kinds that water is also got from, as I have known it obtained from the mulga, acacia trees, and from some casuarina trees ; it depends upon the region they are in, as to what trees give the most if any water, but it is an aboriginal art at any time or place to find it. The mallee we found so dense that not a third of the horses could be seen together, and with great difficulty we managed to reach the foot of 46 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. a small pine-clad hill lying under the foot of the high bluff before mentioned — there a small creek lined with eucalypts ran under its foot. Though our journey to-day was only twelve miles, that distance through such horrible scrubs took us many hours. From the top of the piny hill I could see a watercourse to the south two or three miles away ; it is probably Carmichael's Creek, reformed, after splitting on the plain behind ; Carmichael found a little water-hole up this channel, with barely sufficient water for our use. The day had been disagreeably warm. I rode over to the creek to the south, and found two small puddles in its bed ; but there was evidently plenty of water to be got by digging, as by scratching with my hands I soon obtained some. The camp which Carmichael and Robinson had selected, while I rode over to the other creek, was a most wretched place, in the midst of dense mallee and amidst thick plots of triodia, which we had to cut away before we could sit down. The only direction in which we could see a yard ahead of us was up towards the sky ; and as we were not going that way, it gave us no idea of our next line of route. The big bluff we had been steering for all day was, I may say, included in our skyward view, for it towered above us almost overhead. Being away when the camp was selected, I was sorry to hear that the horses had all been let go without hobbles ; as they had been in such fine quarters for three nights at the last camp on the plain, it was more than probable they would work back through the scrub to it in the night. The following morning not a horse was to A SLIP. 47 be found ! Robinson and I went in search of them, and found they had spHt into several mobs. I only- got three, and at night Robinson returned with only six, the remainder had been missed in the dense scrubs. The thermometer stood at 95° in the shade, and there was a warm wind blowing. Robinson had a fine day's work, as he had to walk back to the camp on the plain for the horses he got. In the afternoon I attempted the high bluff immediately overlooking the camp. I had a bit of cliff-climbing, and reached the summit of one hill of some elevation, 1300 feet, and then found that a vast chasm, or ravine, separated me from the main mountain chain. It would be dark before I could — if I could — reach the summit, and then I should get no view, so I returned to the camp. The height was considerable, as mountains in this part of the world go, as it towered above the hill I was upon, and was 500 or 600 feet higher. These mountains appear to be composed of a kind of conglomerate granite ; very little timber existed upon them, but they were splendidly supplied with high, strong, coarse spinifex. I slipped down a gully, fell into a hideous bunch of this horrid stuff, and got pricked from head to foot ; the spiny points breaking off in my clothes and flesh caused me great annoyance and pain for many days after. Many beautiful flowers grew on the hillsides, in euUies and ravines ; of these I collected several. We secured what horses we had, for the night, which was warm and sultry. In the morning Robinson and I rode after the still missing ones ; at the plain camp we found all except one, and by the time we returned it was night. 48 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. Not hobbling the horses in general, we had some difficulty in finding a pair of hobbles for each, and not being able to do so, I left one in the mob without. This base reptile surreptitiously crawled away in the night by himself. As our camp was the most wretched dog-hole it was possible for a man to get into, in the midst of dense mallee, triodia, and large stones, I determined to escape from it, before looking for the now two missing animals. The water was completely exhausted. We moved away south-westerly for about three miles, to the creek I had scratched in some days ago ; now we had to dig a big hole with a shovel, and with a good deal of labour we obtained a sufficient supply for a few days. A NEW CAMP. 49 CHAPTER IV. FROM I7TH SEPTEMBER TO 1ST OCTOBER, 1 872. Search for the missing horses — Find one — Hot wind and flyino- sand — Last horse recovered — Annoyed by flies — Mountains to the west — Fine timber — Gardiner's Range — Mount Sohtary — Follow the creek — Dig a tank — Character of the country — ■ Thunderstorms — Mount Peculiar — A desolate region — Sandhills — -Useless rain — A bare granite hill — No water — Equinoctial gales — Search for water — Find a rock reservoir — Native fig-trees — Gloomy and desolate view — The old chain — Hills surrounded by scrubs — More hills to the west — Difficult watering-place — - Immortelles — Cold weather — View from a hill — Renewed search for water — Find a small supply — Almost unapproachable — Effects of the spinifex on the horses — Pack-horses in scrubs — The Mus conditor — Glistening micaceous hills - — Unsuccessful search — Waterless hill nine hundred feet high — Oceans of scrub — Retreat to last reservoir — Natives' smokes — Night without water — Unlucky day — Two horses lost — Recover them — Take a wrong turn— Difficulty in watering the horses — An uncomfortable camp — Unsuccessful searches — Mount Udor — Mark a tree — Tender-footed horses — Poor feed — Sprinkling rain— Flies again troublesome — Start for the western ranges — Difficult scrubs — Lonely camp — Horses away — Reach the range — No water — Retreat to Mount Udor — Slight rain — Determine to abandon this region — Corkwood trees — Ants' nests — Glow-worms -Native poplar- trees — Peculiar climate — Red gum-trees — A mare foals — Depart for the south — Remarks on the country. Having fixed our camp at a new place, in the afternoon of the 17th September, Robinson and I again went to look after the horses. At three miles VOL. I. E 50 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. above the camp we found some water; soon after we got the tracks of one horse and saw that he had been about there for a day or two, as the tracks were that age. We made a sweep out round some hills, found the tracks again, much fresher, and came upon the horse about seven miles from the camp. The other horse was left for to-morrow. Thermometer 96°, sky overcast, rain imminent. During the night of the i8th of September a few heat-drops of rain fell. I sent Robinson away to the plain camp, feeling sure he would find the rover there. A hot wind blew all day, the sand was flying about in all directions. Robinson got the horse at last at the plain, and I took special care to find a pair of hobbles for him for this night at all events. The flies were an intoler- able nuisance, not that they were extraordinarily numerous, but so insufferably pertinacious. I think the tropic fly of Australia the most abominable insect of its kind. From the summit of the hill I ascended on Sunday, I found the line of mountains still ran on to the west, the farthest hills appeared fifty miles away. As they extend so far, and are the principal features in sight, I shall follow them, in hopes of meeting some creek, or river, that may carry me on to the west. It is a remarkable fact that such high hills as I have been following should send out no creek whose course extends farther than ten or twelve miles. I could trace the creek I am now on by its timber for only a few miles, its course appearing south of west. The country in its immediate neighbourhood is open, and timbered with fine casuarina trees ; the grass is dry and long. DIG FOR WATER. 51 and the triodia approaches to within a quarter of a mile of it. The line of hills I previously mentioned as runninor along to the south of us, we had now run out. I named them Gardiner's Range, after a friend of Mr. Carmichael's. There is, however, one small isolated hill, the farthest outpost of that line, some three miles away to the south-west ; the creek may probably take a bend down towards it. I called it Mount Solitary. This creek is rather well timbered, the gum-trees look fresh and young, and there is some green herbage in places, though the surface water has all disappeared. There was so little water at the camp tank, we had to send the horses up the creek three miles to water, and on their return I was not sorry to be moving again, for our stay at these two last camps had been compulsory, and the anxiety, trouble, and annoyance we had, left no very agreeable remi- niscences of the locality in our minds. We travelled along the creek all day, cutting off the bends, but without seeing any signs of water : towards evening we set to work to try if we could get any by digging. In about four feet, water began to drain in, but, the sand being so loose, we had to remove an enormous quantity to enable a horse to drink. Some of the horses would not go into it, and had to be watered with a canvas bucket. The supply seemed good, but it only drained in from the sides. Every time a horse drank we had to clear out the sand for the next ; it therefore took until late before all were satisfied. The country was still open, and timbered with fine black oak, or what is so called in Australia. It is a species of casuariiia, of the same family but distinct from the E 2 52 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. beautiful desert oak. Triodia reigned supreme within half a mile. At this camp the old grass had been burnt, and fresh young green shoots appeared in its place ; this was very good for the horses. A few drops of rain fell ; distant rumblings of thunder and flashes of lightning now cooled the air. While we were at breakfast the next morning, a thunderstorm came up to us from the west, then suddenly turned away, only just sprinkling us, though we could see the rain falling heavily a few yards to the south. We packed up and went off, hoping to find a better- watered region at the hills westwards. There was an extraordinary mount a little to the west of north from us ; it looked something like a church ; it was over twenty miles away : I called it Mount Peculiar. Leaving the creek on our left, to run itself out into some lonely flat or dismal swamp, known only to the wretched inhabitants of this desolate region — over which there seems to brood an unutterable stillness and a dread repose — we struck into sand- hill country, rather open, covered with the triodia or spinifex, and timbered with the casuarina or black oak trees. We had scarcely gone two miles when our old thunderstorm came upon us — it had evidently missed us at first, and had now come to look for us — and it rained heavily. The country was so sandy and porous that no water remained on the surface. We travelled on and the storm travelled with us — the ground sucking up every drop that fell. Continuing our course, which was north 67° west, we travelled twenty-five miles. At this dis- tance we came in sight of the mountains I was steering for, but they were too distant to reach before night, so, turning a little northward to the A ROCK RESERVOIR. 53 foot of a low, bare, white granite hill, I hoped to find a creek, or at least some ledges in the rocks, where we might get some water. Not a drop was to be found. Though we had been travelling in the rain all day and accomplished thirty miles, we were obliged to camp without water at last. There was good feed for the horses, and, as it was still raining, they could not be very greatly in want of water. We fixed up our tent and retired for the night, the wind blowing furiously, as might reasonably be ex- pected, for it was the eve of the vernal equinox, and this I supposed was our share of the equinoctial gales. We were compelled in the morning to re- move the camp, as we had not a drop of water, and unless it descended in sheets the country could not hold it, being all pure red sand. The hill near us had no rocky ledges to catch water, so we made off for the hiofher mountains for which we were steerinof yesterday. Their nearest or most eastern point was not more than four miles away, and we went first to it. I walked on ahead of the horses with the shovel, to a small gully I saw with the glasses, having some few eucalypts growing in it. I walked up it, to and over rocky ledges, down which at times, no doubt, small leaping torrents roar. Very little of yesterday's rain had fallen here ; but most fortunately I found one small rock reservoir, with just sufficient water for all the horses. There was none either above or below in any other basin, and there were many better-looking places, but all were dry. The water in this one must have stood for some time, yesterday's rain not having affected it in the least. The place at which I found the water was the most difficult for horses to reach ; it was 54 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. almost impracticable. After finding this opportune though awkwardly situated supply, I climbed to the summit of the mount. On the top was a native fig-tree in full bearing ; the fruit was ripe and delicious. It is the size of an ordinary marble, yellow when unripe, and gradually becoming red, then black : it is full of small seeds. I was dis- turbed from my repast by seeing the horses, several hundred feet below me, going away in the wrong direction, and I had to descend before I had time to look around ; but the casual glance I obtained gave me the most gloomy and desolate view imagin- able ; one, almost enough to daunt the explorer from penetrating any farther into such a dreadful region. To the eastward, I found I had now long outrun the old main chain of mountains, which had turned up to the north, or rather north-north-westward ; be- tween me and it a mass of jumbled and broken mounts appeared ; each separate one, however, was almost surrounded by scrubs, which ran up to the foot of the hill I was upon. Northward the view was similar. To the west the picture was the same, except that a more defined range loomed above the intervening scrubs — the hills furthest away in that direction being probably fifty miles distant. The whole horizon looked dark and gloomy — I could see no creeks of any kind, the most extensive water channels were mere gullies, and not existing at all: at a mile from the hills they issued from. Watering our horses proved a difficult and tedious task ; as many of them would not approach the rocky basin, the water had to be carried up to them in canvas buckets. By the time they were all watered, and we had descended from the rocky i TRICKLING WATER. 55 guHy, the day had passed with most miraculous celerity. The horses did not finish the water, there being nearly sufficient to give them another drink. The grass was good here, as a little flat, on which grew some yellow immortelles, had recently been burnt. I allowed the horses to remain and drink up the balance of the water, while I went away to inspect some other gorges or gullies in the hills to the west of us, and see whether any more water could be found. The day was cool and fine. I climbed to the summit of a hill about 800 feet from its base. The view was similar to yesterday's, except that I could now see these hills ran on west for twelve or fifteen miles, where the country was entirely covered with scrubs. Little gullies, with an odd, and stunted, gum-tree here and there, were seen. Few of these orullies were more than six feet wide, and the trumpery little streams that descend, in even their most flooded state, would be of but little service to anybody. I had wandered up and down hills, in and out of gullies, all the morning, but had met no single drop of water, and was returning disappointed to the camp when, on trying one more small scrubby, dreadfully-rocky little gully which I had missed, or rather passed by, in going out, I was fortunate enough to discover a few small rocky holes full of the purest fluid. This treasure was small indeed, but my gratitude was great ; for what pleased me m.ost was the rather strange fact that the water was trickling from one basin to another, but with the weakest possible flow. Above and below where I found this water the gully and the rocks were as dry as the desert around. Had the supply not been kept up by the 56 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. trickling, half my horses would have emptied all the holes at a draught. The approach to this water was worse, rougher, rockier, and more impracticable than at the camp ; I was, however, most delighted to have found it, otherwise I should have had to retreat to the last creek. I determined, however, not to touch it now, but to keep it as a reserve fund, should I be unable to find more out west. Returning to camp, we gave the horses all the water remaining, and left the spot perfectly dry. We now had the line of hills on our right, and travelled nearly west-north-west. Close to the foot of the hills the country is open, but covered with large stones, between the interstices of which grow huge bunches of the hideous spinifex, which both we and the horses dread like a pestilence. We have encountered this scourge for over 200 miles. All around the coronets of most of the horses, in consequence of their being so continually punctured with the spines of this terrible grass, it has caused a swelling, or tough enlargement of the flesh and skin, giving them the appearance of having ring- bones. Many of them have the flesh quite raw and bleeding ; they are also very tender-footed from traversing so much stony ground, as we have lately had to pass over. Bordering upon the open stony triodia ground above-mentioned is a bed of scrubs, composed chiefly of mulga, though there are various other trees, shrubs, and plants amongst it. It is so dense and thick that in it we cannot see a third of the horses at once ; they, of course, continually endeavour to make into it to avoid the stones and triodia ; for, generally speaking, the pungent triodia THE MUS CONDITOR. 57 and the mulga acacia appear to be antagonistic members of the vegetable kingdom. The ground in the scrubs is generally soft, and on that account also the horses seek it. Out of kindness, I have occasionally allowed them to travel in the scrubs, when our direct course should have been on the open, until some dire mishap forces us out again ; for, the scrubs being so dense, the horses are compelled to crash through them, tearing the coverings of their loads, and frequently forcing sticks in between their backs or sides and their saddles, sometimes staking themselves severely. Then we hear a frantic crashing through the scrubs, and the sounds of the pounding of horse-hoofs are the first notice we receive that some calamity has occurred. So soon as we ourselves can force our way through, and collect the horses the best way we can, yelling and howling to one another to say how many each may have got, we discover one or two missing. Then they have to be tracked ; por- tions of loads are picked up here and there, and, in the course of an hour or more, the horse or horses are found, repacked, and on we push again, mostly for the open, though rough and stony spinifex ground, where at least we can see what is going on. These scrubs are really dreadful, and one's skin and clothes get torn and ripped in all directions. One of these mishaps occurred to-day. In these scrubs are met nests of the building rat (Mus conditor). They form their nests with twigs and sticks to the height of four feet, the circum- ference being fifteen to twenty. The sticks are all lengths up to three feet, and up to an inch in diameter. Inside are chambers and galleries, while 58 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. in the ground underneath are tunnels, which are carried to some distance from their citadel. They occur in many parts of Australia, and are occasionally met with on plains where few trees can be found. As a general rule, they frequent the country in- habited by the black oak (casuarina). They can live without water, but, at times, build so near a water- course as to have their structures swept away by floods. Their flesh is very good eating. In ten miles we had passed several little gullies, and reached the foot of other hills, where a few Australian pines were scattered here and there. These hills have a glistening, sheening, laminated appearance, caused by the vast quantities of mica which abounds in them. Their sides are furrowed and corrugated, and their upper portions almost bare rock. Time was lost here in unsuccessful searches for water, and we departed to another range, four or five miles farther on, and apparently higher ; therefore perhaps more likely to supply us with water. Mr. Carmichael and I ascended the range, and found it to be 900 feet from its base ; but in all its grullies water there was none. The view from the summit was just such as I have described before — an ocean of scrubs, with isolated hills or ranges appearing like islands in most directions. Our horses had been already twenty-four hours with- out water. I wanted to reach the far range to the west, but it was useless to push all the pack-horses farther into such an ocean of scrubs, as our rate of progress in them was so terribly slow. I decided to return to the small supply I had left as a reserve, and go myself to the far range, which was yet some thirty miles away. The country southward seemed UNLUCKY DAY. 59 to have been more recently visited by the natives than upon our line of march, which perhaps was not to be wondered at, as what could they get to live on out of such a region as we had got into ? Probably forty or fifty miles to the south, over the tops of some low ridges, we saw the ascending smoke of spinifex fires, still attended to by the natives ; and in the neighbourhood, no doubt, they had some watering places. On our retreat we travelled round the northern face of the hills, upon whose south side we had arrived, in hopes of finding some place having water, where I might form a depot for a few days. By night we could find none, and had to encamp without, either for ourselves or our horses. The following day seemed foredoomed to be un- lucky ; it really appeared as though everything must go wrong by a natural law. In the first place, while making a hobble peg, while Carmichael and Robinson were away after the horses, the little piece of wood slipped out of my hand, and the sharp blade of the knife went through the top and nail of my third finger and stuck in the end of my thumb. The cut bled profusely, and it took me till the horses came to sew my mutilated digits up. It was late when we left this waterless spot. As there was a hill with a prepossessing gorge, I left Carmichael and Robinson to bring the horses on, and rode off to see if I could find water there. Though I rode and walked in gullies and gorges, no water was to be found. I then made down to where the horses should have passed along, and found some of them standing with their packs on, in a small bit of open ground, surrounded by dense scrubs, which by 6o AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. chance I came to, and nobody near. I called and waited, and at last Mr. Carmichael came and told me that when he and Robinson debouched with the horses on this little open space, they found that two of the animals were missing, and that Robinson had gone to pick up their tracks. The horse carrying my papers and instruments was one of the truants. Robinson soon returned, not having found the track. Neither of them could tell when they saw the horses last. I sent Mr. Carmichael to another hill two or three miles away, that we had passed, but not inspected yesterday, to search for water, while Robinson and I looked for the missinor horses. And lest any more should retreat during our absence, we tied them up in two mobs. Robinson tied his lot up near a small rock. We then separately made sweeps round, returning to the horses on the op- posite side, without success. We then went again in company, and again on opposite sides singly, but neither tracks nor horses could be found. Five hours had now elapsed since I first heard of their absence. I determined to make one more circuit beyond any we had already taken, so as to include the spot we had camped at ; this occupied a couple of hours. When I returned I was surprised to hear that Robinson had found the horses in a small but extra dense bunch of scrub not twenty yards from the spot where he had tied his horses up. While I was away he had gone on top of the little stony eminence close by, and from its summit had ob- tained a bird's-eye view of the ground below, and thus perceived the two animals, which had never been absent at all. It seemed strange to me that I could not find their tracks, but the reason was A ROUGH PLACE. 6i there were no tracks to find. I took it for granted when Carmichael told me of their absence that they were absent, but he and Robinson were both mistaken. It was now nearly evening, and I had been riding my horse at a fast pace the whole day ; I was afraid we could not reach the reserve water by night. But we pushed on, Mr. Carmichael joining us, not having found any water. At dusk we reached the small creek or gully, up in whose rocks I had found the water on Sunday. At a certain point the creek split in two, or rather two channels joined, and formed one, and I suppose the same ill fate that had pursued me all day made me mis- take the proper channel, and we drove the un- fortunate and limping horses up a wretched, rocky, vile, scrubby, almost impenetrable gully, where there was not a sup of water. On discovering my error, we had to turn them back over the same horrible places, all rocks, dense scrubs, and triodia, until we got them into the proper channel. When near the first little hole I had formerly seen, I dismounted, and walked up to see how it had stood during my absence, and was grieved to discover that the lowest and largest hole was nearly dry. I bounded up the rocks to the next, and there, by the blessing of Providence, was still a sufficient quantity, as the slow trickling of the water from basin to basin had not yet entirely ceased, though its current had sadly diminished since my last visit only some seventy hours since. By this time it was dark, and totally impossible to get the horses up the gully. We had to get them over a horrible ridge of broken and jumbled rocks. 62 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. having to get levers and roll away huge boulders, to make something like a track to enable the animals to reach the water. Time (and labour) accomplishes all things, and in time the last animal's thirst was quenched, and the last drop of water sucked up from every basin. I was afraid it would not be replenished by morn- ing. We had to encamp in the midst of a thicket of a kind of willow acacia with pink bark all in little curls, with a small and pretty mimosa-like leaf. This bush is of the most tenacious nature — you may bend it, but break it won't. We had to cut away sufficient to make an open square, large enough for our packs, and to enable us to lie down, also to remove the huge bunches of spinifex that occupied the space ; then, when the stones were cleared away, we had something like a place for a camp. By this time it was midnight, and we slept, all heartily tired of our day's work, and the night being cool we could sleep in comfort. Our first thought in the morningf was to see how the basins looked. Mr. Carmichael went up with a keg to discover, and on his return reported that they had all been re- filled in the night, and that the trickling continued, but less in volume. This was a great relief to my mind ; I trust the water will remain until I return from those dismal-looking mountains to the west. I made another search during the morning for more water, but without success, and I can only conclude that this water was permitted by Providence to remain here in this lonely spot for my especial benefit, for no more rain had fallen here than at any of the other hills in the neighbourhood, nor is this one any higher or different from the others which I MOUNT UDOR. 63 visited, except that this one had a httle water and all the rest none. In gratitude therefore to this hill I have called it Mount Udor. Mount Udorwas the only spot where water was to be found in this abominable region, and when I left it the udor had departed also. I got two of my riding-horses shod to-dr y, as the country I intended to travel over is abcut half stones and half scrub. I have marked a eucalyptus or gum-tree in this gully close to the foot of the rock where I found the water [If], as this is my twenty-first camp from Chambers' Pillar. My position here is in latitude 23° 14', longitude 130° 55', and variation 3° east nearly. I could not start to-day as the newly shod horses are so tender- footed that they seem to go worse in their shoes ; they may be better to-morrow. The water still holds out. The camp is in a confined gully, and warm, though it is comparatively a cool day. The grass here is very poor, and the horses wander a great deal to look for feed. Four of them could not be found in the morning. A slight thunder- storm passed over in the night, with a sprinkling of rain for nearly an hour, but not sufficient fell to damp a pocket-handkerchief. It was, however, quite sufficient to damp my hopes of a good fall. The flies are very numerous here and troublesome. After watering my two horses I started away by myself for the ranees out west. I went on our old tracks as far as they went, then I visited some other hills on my line of march. As usual, the country alter- nated between open stones at the foot of the hills and dense scrubs beyond. I thought one of the beds of scrubs I got into the densest I had ever seen, it was actually impenetrable without cutting 64 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. one's way, and I had to turn around and about in all directions. 1 had the greatest difficulty to get the horse I was leading to come on at all ; I had no power over him whatever. I could not use either a whip or a stick, and he dragged so much that he nearly pulled me out of my saddle, so that I could hardly tell which way I was going, and it was extremely difficult to keep anything like a straight course. Night overtook me, and I had to encamp in the scrubs, having travelled nearly forty miles. A few drops of rain fell ; it may have benefited the horses, but to me it was a nuisance. I was up, off my sandy couch early enough, but had to wait for daylight before I could get the horses ; they had wandered away for miles back towards the camp, and I had the same difficulties over again when getting them back to where the saddles were. In seven or eight miles after starting I got out of the scrubs. At the foot of the mountain for which I was steering there was a little creek or gully, with some eucalypts where I struck it. It was, as all the others had been, scrubby, rocky, and dry. I left the horses and ascended to the top, about 900 feet above the scrubs which surrounded it. The horizon was broken by low ranges nearly all round, but scrubs as usual intervened between them. I descended and walked into dozens of gullies and rocky places, and I found some small holes and basins, but all were dry. At this spot I was eighty miles from a sufficient supply of water ; that at the camp, forty-five miles away, may be gone by the time I return. Under these circumstances I could not go any farther west. It was now evening again. I left these desolate hills, the Ehrenberg Ranges of DECIDE TO RETREAT. 65 my map, and travelled upon a different line, hoping to find a better or less thick route throuo-h the scrubs, but it was just the same, and altoo-ether abominable. Night again overtook me in the dire- ful scrubs, not very far from the place at which I had slept the previous night ; the most of the day was wasted in an ineffectual search for water. On Sunday morning, the 29th September, having hobbled my horses so short, although the scrubs were so thick, they were actually in sight at dawn ; I might as well have tied them up. Starting at once, I travelled to one or two hills we had passed by, but had not inspected before, I could find no water anywhere. It was late when I reached the camp, and I was gladdened to find the party still there, and that the water supply had held out so long. On the following morning, Monday, the 30th of September, it was at a very low ebb ; the trickling had ceased in the upper holes, though it was still oozing into the lower ones, so that it was absolutely necessary to pack up and be off from this wretched place. It was an expedition in itself to get water for the camp, from the rock basins above. The horses dreaded to approach it on account of their tender feet. It required a lot of labour to get sufficient firewood to boil a quart pot, for, although we were camped in a dense thicket, the small wood of which it was composed was all green, and useless for firewood. I intended to retreat from here to-day, but just as Robinson was starting to find the horses a shower of rain' came on, and hoping it might end in a heavier fall, I decided to remain until to-morrow, to give the rain a chance, — especially as, aided by the VOL. I. F 66 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. slight rain, the horses could do without a drink, there now being only one drink remaining, as the trickling had entirely ceased, though we yet had the little holes full. The rain fell in a slight and gentle shower two or three hours, but it left no trace of its fall, even upon the rocks, so that our water supply was not increased by one pint. To-morrow I am off ; it is useless to remain in a region such as this. But where shall I go next ? The creek I had last got water in, might even now be dry. I determined to try and reach it farther down its channel. If it existed beyond where I left it, I expected, in twenty-five to thirty miles, in a southerly direction, to strike it again : therefore, I decided to travel in that direction. A few quan- dongs, or native peach trees, exist amongst these gullies ; also a tree that I only know by the name of the corkwood tree.* The wood is soft, and light in weight and colour. It is by no means a hand- some tree. It grows about twenty feet high. Generally two or three are huddled together, as though growing from one stem. Those I saw were nearly all dead. They grow in the little water channels. The ants here, as in nearly the whole of Tropical Australia, build nests from four to six feet high— in some other parts I have known them twenty — to escape, I suppose, from the torrents of rain that at times fall in these reunions : the height * " Sesbania grandiflora," Baron Mueller says, " North- Western Australia ; to the verge of the tropics ; Indian Archipelago ; called in Australia the corkwood tree ; valuable for various utilitarian purposes. The red-flowered variety is grandly ornamented. Dr. Roxburgh recommends the leaves and young pods as an exquisite spinach ; the plant is shy of frost." A MARE FOALS. 67 also protects their eggs and stores from the fires the natives continually keep burning. This burning, perhaps, accounts for the conspicuous absence of insects and reptiles. One night, however, I certainly saw glowworms. These I have only seen in one other region in Australia — near Geelong,- in Victoria. A tree called the native poplar {Codonocarpiis cotinifoliiLs) is also found growing in the scrubs and water-channels of this part of the country. The climate of this region appears very peculiar. Scarcely a week passes without thunderstorms and rain ; but the latter falls in such small quantities that it is almost useless. It is evidently on this account that there are no waters or watercourses deserving of the name. I should like to know how much rain would have to fall here before any could be discovered lying on the ground. All waters found in this part of the country must be got out of pure sand, in a water channel or pure rock. The native orange- tree grows here, but the specimens I have met are very poor and stunted. The blood-wood-trees, or red gum-trees, which always enliven any landscape where they are found, also occur. They are not, however, the magnificent vegetable structures which are known in Queensland and Western Australia, but are mostly gnarled and stunted. They also grow near the watercourses. The ist October broke bright and clear, and I was only too thankful to get out of this horrible region and this frightful encampment, into which the fates had drawn me, alive. When the horses arrived, there was only just enough water for all to drink ; but one mare was away, and Robinson said she had foaled. The foal was too young to walk 68 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. or move ; the dam was extremely poor, and had been losing condition for some time previously ; so Robinson went back, killed the foal, and brought up the mare. Now there was not sufficient water to satisfy her when she did come. Mr. Carmichael and I packed up the horses, while Robinson was away upon his unpleasant mission. When he brought her up, the mare looked the picture of misery. At last I turned my back upon this wretched camp and region ; and we went away to the south. It was half- past two o'clock when we got clear from our prison. It is almost a work of supererogation to make many further i"emarks on the character of this region — I mean, of course, since we left the Finke. I might, at a word, condemn it as a useless desert. I will, however, scarcely use so sweeping a term. I can truly say it is dry, stony, scrubby, and barren, and this in my former remarks any one who runs can read. I saw very few living creatures, but it is occasionally visited by its native owners, to whom I do not grudge the possession of it. Occasionally the howls of the native dog {Cants familiaris) — or dingo as he is usually called — were heard, and their footprints in sandy places seen. A small species of kangaroo, known as the scrub wallaby, were sometimes seen, and startled from their pursuit of nibbling at the roots of plants, upon which they exist ; but the scrubs being so dense, and their movements so rapid, it was utterly im- possible to get a shot at them. Their greatest enemy — besides the wild black man and the dingo — is the large eagle-hawk, which, though flying at an enormous height, is always on the watch ; but it is only when the wallaby lets itself out, on to the stony DIAMOND BIRDS. 69 Open, that the enemy can swoop down upon it. The eagle trusses it with his talons, smashes its head with its beak to quiet it, and, finally, if a female, flies away with the victim to its nest for food for its young, or if a male bird, to some lonely rock or secluded tarn, to gorge its fill alone. I have frequently seen these eagles swoop on to one, and, while struggling with its prey, have galloped up and secured it myself, before the dazed wallaby could collect its senses. Other birds of prey, such as sparrow-hawks, owls, and mopokes (a kind of owl), inhabit this region, but they are not numerous. Dull-coloured, small birds, that exist entirely without water, are found in the scrubs ; and in the mornings they are sometimes noisy, but not melodious, when there is a likelihood of rain ; and the smallest of Australian ornithology, the diamond bird {Amadind) of Gould, is met with at almost every watering place. Reptiles and insects, as I have said, are scarce, on account of the continual fires the natives use in their perpetual hunt for food. 70 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. CHAPTER V. FROM 1ST TO I5TH OCTOBER, 1 872. A bluff hill — Quandong trees — The mulga tree — Travel S. S.E. — Mare left behind — Native peaches — Short of water — Large tree — Timbered ridges — Horses suffer from thirst — Pine- trees — Native encampments — Native paintings in caves — Peculiar crevice — A rock tarn — A liquid prize — Caverns and caves— A pretty oasis — Ripe figs — Recover the mare — Thunder and lightning — Ornamented caves — Hands of glory — A snake in a hole — Heavy dew — Natives burning the country — A rocky eminence — Waterless region — Cheerless view — A race of Salamanders — Circles of fire — Wallaby and pigeons — Wallaby traps — Return to depot — Water diminish- ing — Glen Edith- — ^Mark trees — The tarn of Auber — Land- marks to it — Seeds sown — Everything in miniature — Journey south — Desert oaks — A better region — Kangaroos and emus — Desert again — A creek channel — Water by scratching — Find more — Splendid grass — Native signs — Farther south — Beautiful green — Abundance of water — Follow the channel — Laurie's Creek — Vale of Tempe — A gap or pass — ^Without water — Well-grassed plain — Native well — Dry rock holes — Natives' fires — New ranges — High mountain — Return to creek — And Glen Edith — Description of it. On starting from Mount Udor, on the ist October, our road lay at first over rocks and stones, then for two or three miles throug^h thick scrubs. The country afterwards became a trifle less scrubby, and consisted of sandhills, timbered with casuarina, and covered, as usual, with triodla. In ten miles we passed a low bluff hill, and camped near it, with- out any water. On the road we saw several quan- THE MULGA TREE. 71 dong trees, and got some of the ripe fruit. The day was warm and sultry ; but the night set in cool, if not cold. Mr. Carmichael went to the top of the low bluff, and informed me of the existence of low ridges, bounding the horizon in every direction except to the S.S.E., and that the intervening country appeared to be composed of sandhills, with casuarinas, or mulga scrubs. In Baron von Mueller's extraordinary work on Select Extra-tropical Plants, with indications of their native countries, and some of their uses, these remarks occur: — ''Acacia aneiira, Ferd. V. Mueller. Arid desert — interior of extra tropic Australia. A tree never more than twenty-five feet high. The principal ' mulga ' tree. Mr. S. Dixon praises it particularly as valuable for fodder of pasture animals ; hence it might locally serve for ensilage. Mr. W. Johnson found in the foliage a considerable quantity of starch and gum, rendering it nutritious. Cattle and sheep browse on the twigs of this, and some allied species, even in the presence of plentiful grass ; and are much sustained by such acacias in seasons of protracted drought. Drome- daries in Australia crave for the mulga as food. Wood excessively hard, dark-brown ; used, pre- ferentially, by the natives for boomerangs, sticks with which to lift edible roots, and shafts of phrag- mites, spears, wommerahs, nulla-nullas, and jagged spear ends. Mr. J. H. Maiden determined the per- centage of mimosa tannic acid in the perfectly dry bark as 8*62." The mulga bears a small woody fruit called the mulga apple. It somewhat re- sembles the taste of apples, and is sweet. If crab apples, as is said, were the originals of all the 72 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. present kinds, I imagine an excellent fruit might be obtained from the mulga by cultivation. As this tree is necessarily so often mentioned in my travels, the remarks of so eminent a botanist upon it cannot be otherwise than welcome. In the direction of S.S.E. Mr. Carmichael said the country appeared most open. A yellow flower, of the immortelle species, which I picked at this little bluff, was an old Darling acquaintance ; the vegetation, in many respects, resembles that of the River Darling. There was no water at this bluff, and the horses wandered all over the country during the night, in mobs of twos and threes. It was mid- day before we got away. For several hours we kept on S.S.E. , over sandhills and through casuarina timber, in unvarying monotony. At about five o'clock the little mare that had foaled yesterday gave in, and would travel no farther. We were obliged to leave her amongst the sandhills. We continued until we had travelled forty miles from Mount Udor, but no signs of a creek or any place likely to produce or hold water had been found. The only difference in the country was that it was now more open, though the spinifex was as lively as ever. We passed several quandong trees in full fruit, of which we ate a great quantity ; they were the most palatable, and sweetest I have ever eaten. We also passed a few Currajong-trees {BrachycJiitoii). At this point we turned nearly east. It was, however, now past sundown, too dark to go on any farther, and we had again to encamp without water, our own small supply being so limited that we could have only a third of a pint each, and we could not eat any- HORSES SUFFERING FROM THIRST. 73 thing in consequence. The horses had to be very short-hobbled to prevent their straying, and we passed the night under the umbrage of a colossal Currajong-tree. The unfortunate horses had now- been two days and nights without water, and could not feed ; being so short-hobbled, they were almost in sight of the camp in the morning. From the top of a sandhill I saw that the eastern horizon was bounded by timbered ridges, and it was not very probable that the creek I was searching for could lie between us and them. Indeed, I concluded that the creek had exhausted itself, not far from where we had left it. The western horizon was now bounded by low ridges, continuous for many miles. I decided to make for our last camp on the creek, distant some five-and-twenty miles north-east. At five miles after starting, we came upon a mass of eucalypts which were not exactly gum-trees, though of that family, and I thought this might be the end of the exhausted creek channel, only the timber grew promiscuously on the tops of the sandhills, as in the lower ground between them. There was no appearance of any flow of water ever having passed by these trees, and indeed they looked more like gigantic mallee-trees than gums, only that they grew separately. They covered a space of about half a mile wide. From here I saw that some ridges were right before me, at a short distance, but where our line of march would intersect them they seemed so scrubby and stony I wished to avoid them. At one point I discerned a notch or gap. The horses were now very troublesome to drive, the poor creatures being very bad with thirst. I turned on the bearing that would take me back to 74 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. the old creek, which seemed the only spot in this desolate region where water could be found, and there we had to dig to get it. At one place on the ridges before us appeared a few pine-trees {Calli- tris) which enliven any region they inhabit, and there is usually water in their neighbourhood. The rocks from which the pines grew were much broken ; they were yet, however, five or six miles away. We travelled directly towards them, and upon approach- ing, I found the rocks upheaved in a most singular manner, and a few gum-trees were visible at the foot of the rido^e. I directed Carmichael and Robinson to avoid the stones as much as possible, while I rode over to see whether there was a creek or any other place where water might be procured. On approaching the rocks at the foot of the ridge, I found several enormous overhanging ledges of sandstone, under which the natives had evidently been encamped long and frequently ; and there was the channel of a small watercourse scarcely more than six feet wide. I rode over to another over- hanCTinor ledg^e and found it formed a verandah wide enough to make a large cave ; upon the walls of this, the natives had painted strange devices of snakes, principally in white ; the children had scratched imperfect shapes of hands with bits of charcoal. The whole length of this cave had fre- quently been a large encampment. Looking about with some hopes of finding the place where these children of the wilderness obtained water, I espied about a hundred yards away, and on the opposite side of the little glen or valley, a very peculiar- looking crevice between two huge blocks of sand- stone, and apparently not more than a yard wide. AN OPPORTUNE WATER. 75 I rode over to this spot, and to my great delight found a most excellent little rock tarn, of nearly an oblong shape, containing a most welcome and opportune supply of the fluid I was so anxious to discover. Some green slime rested on a portion of the surface, but the rest was all clear and pure water. My horse must have thought me mad, and any one who had seen me might have thought I had suddenly espied some basilisk, or cockatrice, or mailed saurian ; for just as the horse was preparing to dip his nose in the water he so greatly wanted, I turned him away and made him gallop off after his and my companions, who were slowly passing away from this liquid prize. When I hailed, and overtook them, they could scarcely believe that our wants were to be so soon and so agreeably relieved. There was abundance of water for all our requirements here, but the approach was so narrow that only two horses could drink at one time, and we had great difficulty in preventing some of the horses from precipitating themselves, loads and all, into the inviting fluid. No one who has not experienced it, can imagine the pleasure which the finding of such a treasure confers on the thirsty, hungry, and weary traveller ; all his troubles for the time are at an end. Thirst, that dire affliction that besets the wanderer in the Australian wilds, at last is quenched ; his horses, unloaded, are allowed to roam and graze and drink at will, free from the encumbrance of hobbles, and the traveller's other appetite of hunger is also at length appeased, for no matter what food one may carry, it is impossible to eat it without water. This was truly a mental and bodily relief. After our hunger 76 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. had been satisfied I took a more extended survey of our surroundings, and found that we had dropped into a really very pretty httle spot. Low sandstone hills, broken and split into most extraordinary shapes, forming; huge caves and caverns, that once no doubt had been some of the cavernous depths of the ocean, were to be seen in every direction ; little runnels, with a few gum-trees upon them, constituted the creeks, Callitris or cypress pines, ornamented the landscape, and a few blood-wood or red gum-trees also enlivened the scene. No porcupine, but real green grass made up a really pretty picture, to the explorer at least. This little spot is indeed an oasis. I had climbed high hills, traversed untold miles of scrub, and gone in all directions to try and pick up the channel of a wretched dry creek, when all of a sudden I stum- bled upon a perfect little paradise. I found the dimensions of this little tarn are not very large, nor is the quantity of water in it very great, but un- touched and in its native state it is certainly a permanent water for its native owners. It has probably not been filled since last January or Feb- ruary, and it now contains amply sufficient water to enable it to last until those months return, provided that no such enormous drinkers as horses draw upon it ; in that case it might not last a month. I found the actual water was fifty feet long, by eight feet wide, and four feet deep ; the rocks in which the water lies are more than twenty feet high. The main ridges at the back are between 200 and 300 feet high. The native fig - tree [Ficus orbicidaris) grows here most luxuriantly ; there are several of them in full fruit, which is delicious when RECOVER THE MARE. 77 thoroughly ripe. I had no thought of deserting this welcome Httle spot for a few days. On the following morning Mr. Carmichael an-d I loaded a pack-horse with water and started back into tlie scrub to where we left the little mare the day before yesterday. With protractor and paper I found the spot we left her at bore from this place south 70° west, and that she was now not more than thirteen or fourteen miles away, though we had travelled double the distance since we left her. We therefore travelled upon that bearing, and at thirteen and a half miles we cut our former tract at about a quarter of a mile from where we left the mare. We soon picked up her track and found she had wandered about a mile, although hobbled, from where we left her. We saw her standing, with her head down, under an oak tree truly distressed. The poor little creature was the picture of misery, her milk was entirely gone — she was alive, and that was all that could be said of her. She swallowed up the water we brought with the greatest avidity ; and I believe could have drank as much as a couple of camels could have carried to her. We let her try to feed for a bit with the other three horses, and then started back for the tarn. On this line we did not intersect any of the eucalyptus timber we had passed through yesterday. The mare held up very well until we were close to the camp, when she gave in again ; but we had to somewhat severely persuade her to keep moving, and at last she had her reward by being left standing upon the brink of the water, where she was [like Cyrus when Queen Thomeris had his head cut off into a receptacle filled with blood] enabled to drink her fill. 78 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. In the night heavy storm-clouds gathered o'er us. and vivid Hghtnings played around the rocks near the camp : a storm came up and seemed to part in two, one half going north and the other south ; but just before daybreak we were awakened by a crash of thunder that seemed to split the hills ; and we heard the wrack as though the earth and sky would mingle ; but only a few drops of rain fell, too little to leave any water, even on the surface of the flat rocks close to the camp. This is certainly an ex- traordinary climate. I do not believe a week ever passes without a shower of rain, but none falls to do any good : one good fall in three or even six months, beginning now, would be infinitely more gratifying, to me at least ; but I suppose I must take it as I find it. The rain that does fall certainly cools the atmosphere a little, which is a partial benefit. I found several more caves to-day up in the rocks, and noticed that the natives here have precisely the same method of ornamenting them as the natives of the Barrier Range and mountains east of the Darling. You see the representation of the human hand here, as there, upon the walls of the caves : it is generally coloured either red or black. The drawing is done by filling the mouth with charcoal powder if the device is to be black, if red with red ochre powder, damping the wall where the mark is to be left, and placing the palm of the hand against it, with the fingers stretched out ; the charcoal or ochre powder is then blown against the back of the hand ; when it is withdrawn, it leaves the space occupied by the hand and fingers clean, while the surrounding portions of the wall are all black or red, as the case may be. One device represents NATIVE PAINTINGS. 79 a snake going into a hole : the hole is actually in the rock, while the snake is painted on the wall, and the spectator is to suppose that its head is just in- side the hole ; the body of the reptile is curled round and round the hole, though its breadth is out of all proportion to its length, being seven or eight inches thick, and only two to three feet long. It is painted with charcoal ashes which had been mixed up with some animal's or reptile's fat. Mr. Car- michael left upon the walls a few choice specimens of the white man's art, which will help, no doubt, to teach the young native idea, how to shoot either in one direction or another. To-day it rained in light and fitful showers, which, as usual, were of no use, except indeed to cause a heavy dew which wet all our blankets and things, for we always camp without tent or tarpaulin when- ever it does not actually rain. The solar beams of morning soon evaporated the dew. To the W.S.W, the natives were hunting, and as usual burning the spinifex before them. They do not seem to care much for our company ; for ever since we left the Glen of Palms, these cave-dwelling, reptile-eating Troglodytes have left us severely alone. As there was a continuous ridge for miles to the westward, I determined to visit it ; for though this little tarn, that I had so opportunely found, was a most valuable discovery, yet the number of horses I had were somewhat rapidly reducing the water supply, and I could plainly perceive that, with such a strain upon it, it could not last much more than a month, if that ; I must therefore endeavour to find some other watered place, where next I may remove. On the morning of the 7th October it was evident 8o AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. a warm day was approaching. Mr. Carmichael and I started away to a small rocky eminence, which bore a great resemblance to the rocks immediately behind this camp, and in consequence we hoped to find more water there. The rocks bore south 62° west from camp ; we travelled over sandhills, through scrub, triodia, and some casuarina country, until we reached the hill in twenty miles. It was composed of broken red sandstone rock, being isolated from the main ridge ; other similar heaps were in the vicinity. We soon discovered that there was neither water nor any place to hold it. Having searched all about, we went away to some other ridges, with exactly the same result ; and at dark we had to encamp in the scrubs, having travelled forty miles on fifty courses. The thermometer had stood at 91° in the shade, where we rested the horses in the middle of the day. Natives' smokes were seen mostly round the base of some other ridges to the south-east, which I determined to visit to-morrow ; as the fires were there, natives must or should be also ; and as they require water to exist, we might find their hidden springs. It seemed evident that only in the hills or rocky reservoirs water could be found. We slept under the shadow of a hill, and mounted to its top in the morning. The view was anything but cheering ; ridges, like islands in a sea of scrub, appeared in connection with this one ; some distance away another rose to the south-east. We first searched those near us, and left them in disgust, for those farther away. At eight or nine miles we reached the latter, and another fruitless search was gone through. We then went to another and SALAMANDERS. Si another, walking over the stones and ridinor through the scrubs. We found some large rocky places, where water might remain for many weeks, after being filled ; but when such an occurrence ever had taken place, or ever would take place again, it was impossible to tell. We had wandered into and over such frightful rocky and ungodly places, that it appeared useless to search farther in such a region, as it seemed utterly impossible for water to exist in it all. Nevertheless, the natives were about, burning, burning, ever burning ; one would think they were of the fabled salamander race, and lived on fire instead of water. The fires were starting up here and there around us in fresh and narrowing circles ; it seems as though the natives can only get water from the hollow spouts of some trees and from the roots of others, for on the surface of the earth there is none. We saw a few rock wallaby, a different variety to the scrub or open sandhill kinds. Bronze-winged pigeons also were occa- sionally startled as we wandered about the rocks ; these birds must have water, but they never drink except at sundown, and occasionally just before sunrise, then they fly so swiftly, with unerring precision, on their filmy wings, to the place they know so well will supply them ; and thirty, forty, or fifty miles of wretched scrub, that would take a poor human being and his horse a whole day to accom- plish, are passed over with the quickness of thought. The birds we flushed up would probably dart across the scrubs to the oasis we had so recently found. Our horses were getting bad and thirsty ; the day was warm ; 92° in the shade, in thirst and wretched- ness, is hot enough for any poor animal or man VOL. I. G 82 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. either. But man enters these desolate regions to please himself or satisfy his desire for ambition to win for himself — what ? a medal, a record, a name ? Well, yes, dear reader, these may enter into his thoughts as parts of a tangible recognition of his labours ; but a nobler idea also actuates him — either to find, for the benefit of those who come after him, some beauteous spots where they may dwell ; or if these regions can't supply them, of deserts only can he tell ; but the unfortunate lower is forced into such frightful privations to please the higher animals. We now turned up towards the north-west, amongst scrubs, sandhills, and more stony ridges, where another fruitless search ended as before. Now to the east of us rose a more continuous ridge, which w^e followed under its (base) foot, hoping against hope to meet some creek or gully with water. Gullies we saw, but neither creeks or water. We continued on this line till we struck our outgoing track, and as it was again night, we encamped without water. We had travelled in a triano^le. To-day's march was forty-three miles, and we were yet twenty-nine from the tarn — apparently the only water existing in this extraordinary and terrible region. In one or two places to-day, passing through some of the burning scrubs and spinifex, we had noticed the fresh footprints of several natives. Of course they saw us, but they most perseveringly shunned us, considering us probably far too low a type of animal for their society. We also saw to-day dilapidated old yards, where they had formerly yarded emu or wallaby, though we saw none of their wurleys, or mymys, or gunyahs, or A FILL OF WATER. 83 whatever name suits best. The above are all names of the same thing, of tribes of natives, of different parts of the Continent — as Lnbra, Gin., Niingo, &c., are for woman. No doubt these natives carry water in wallaby or other animals' skins during their burning hunts, for they travel great distances in a day, walking and burning, and picking up every- thing alive or roasted as they go, and bring the game into the general camp at night. We passed through three different lines of conflagrations to-day. I only wish I could catch a native, or a dozen, or a thousand ; it would be better to die or conquer in a pitched battle for water, than be for ever fighting these direful scrubs and getting none. The follow- ing morning the poor horses looked wretched in the extreme ; to remain long in such a region without water is very severe upon them ; it is a wonder they are able to carry us so well. From this desert camp our depot bore north 40*^^ east. The horses were so exhausted that, though we started early enough, it was late in the afternoon when we had accomplished the twenty-nine or thirty miles that brought us at last to the tarn. Altogether they had travelled 1 20 miles without a drink. The water in the tarn had evidently shrunk. The day was warm — thermometer 92° in shadiest place at the depot. A rest after the fatigue of the last few days was absolutely necessary before we made a fresh attempt in some new locality. It is only partly a day's rest— for I, at least, have plenty to do ; but it is a respite, and we can drink our fill of water. And oh ! what a pleasure, what a luxury that is ! How few in civilisation will drink water when they can get anything else. Let thcni G 2 84 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. try going without, in the explorer's sense of the expression, and then see how they will long for it ! The figs on the largest tree, near the cave opposite, are quite ripe and falling ; neither Carmichael nor Robinson care for them, but I eat a good many, though I fancy they are not quite wholesome for a white man's digestive organs ; at first, they act as an aperient, but subsequently have an opposite effect. I called this charming little oasis Glen Edith, after one of my nieces. I marked two gum-trees at this Giles 1 .1 Glen Edith camp, one 24 > ^"^ another | 24. Oct. 9, 72. • Mr. Carmichael and Robinson also marked one with their names. The receptatle in which I found the water I have called the Tarn of Auber, after Allan Poe's beautiful lines, in which that name appears, as I thought them appropriate to the spot. He says : — " It was in the drear month of October, The leaves were all crisped and sere, Adown by the dank Tarn of Auber, In the misty mid regions of Weir." If these are not the misty mid regions of Weir, I don't know where they are. There are two heaps of broken sandstone rocks, with cypress pines growing about them, which will always be a land- mark for any future traveller who may seek the wild seclusion of these sequestered caves. The bear- ing of the water from them is south 51° west, and it is about a mile on that bearing from the northern heap ; that with a glance at my map would enable any ordinary bushman to find it. I sowed a quantity of vegetable seeds here, also seeds of the Tasmanian blue gum-tree, some wattles and clover, rye and J GLEN EDITH. 85 prairie-grass. In the bright gleams of the morning, in tliis Austral land of dawning, it was beautiful to survey this little spot ; everything seemed in minia- ture here — little hills, little glen, little trees, little tarn, and little water. Though the early mornings were cool and pleasant, the days usually turned out GLEN EDITH. just the opposite. On the nth Mr. Carmichael and I got fresh horses, and I determined to try the country more to the south, and leaving Alec Robinson and the little dog Monkey again in charge of glen, and camp, and tarn, away we went in that direction. At first we travelled over sandhills, tim- bered with the fine Casuarina decaisneana, or desert oak ; we then met some eucalvotus-trees orrowinof promiscuously on the tops of the sandhills, as well as in the hollows. At twelve miles we rode over a low ridge ; the country in advance appeared no more inviting than that already travelled.* De- scending to the lower ground, however, we entered 86 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. upon a bit of better country, covered with green grass, there was also some thick mulga scrub upon it. Here we saw a few kangaroos and emus, but could not get a shot at them. Beyond this we entered timbered country again, the desert oak being quite a desert sign. In a few miles farther another ridge fronted us, and a trifle on our left lay a hollow, or valley, which seemed to offer the best road, but we had to ride through some very scrubby gullies, stony, and covered with spinifex. It even- tually formed the valley of a small creek, which soon had a few gum-trees on it. After following this about four miles, we saw a place where the sand was damp, and got some water by scratching with our hands. The supply was insufficient, and we went farther down and found a small hole with just enough for our three horses, and now, having found a little, we immediately wanted to find a great deal more. At twenty-six miles from the tarn we found a place where the natives had dug, and there seemed a good supply, so we camped there for the night. The grass along this creek was magnificent, being about eight inches high and beautifully green, the old grass having been burnt some time ago. It was a most refreshinor sio^ht to our triodia-accus- tomed eyes ; at twelve o'clock the thermometer stood at 94° in the shade. The trend of this little creek, and the valley in which it exists, is to the south- east. Having found water here, we were prepared to find numerous traces of natives, and soon saw old camps and wurleys, and some recent footmarks. I was exceedingly gratified to find this water, as I hoped it would eventually enable me to get out of the wretched bed of sand and scrub into which we J THE VALE OE TEMPE. 87 had been forced since leavinor the Finke, and which evidently occupies such an enormous extent of territory. Our horses fed all night close at hand, and we were in our saddles early enough. I wanted to go west, and the further west the better ; but we decided to follow the creek and see what became of it, and if any more waters existed in it. We found that it meandered through a piece of open plain, splendidly grassed, and delightful to gaze upon. How beautiful is the colour of green ! What other colour could even Nature have chosen with which to embellish the face of the earth ? How, indeed, would red, or blue, or yellow pall upon the eye ! But green, emerald green, is the loveliest of all Nature's hues. The soil of this plain was good and firm. The creek had now worn a deep channel, and in three miles from where we camped we came upon the top of a high red bank, with a very nice little water-hole underneath. There was abundance of water for 100 or 200 horses for a month or two, and plenty more in the sand below. Three other ponds were met lower down, and I believe water can always be got by digging. We followed the creek for a mile or two farther, and found that it soon became exhausted, as casuarina and triodia sandhills environed the little plain, and after the short course of scarcely ten miles, the little creek became swallowed up by those water-devour- ing monsters. This was named Laurie's Creek. There was from 6000 to 10,000 acres of fine grass land in this little plain, and it was such a change from the sterile, triodia, and sandy country outside it, I could not resist calling it the Vale of Tempe. We left the exhausted creek, and 88 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. in ten miles from our camp we entered on and descended into another valley, which was open, but had no signs of any water. From a hill I saw some ridges stretching away to the south and south-west, and to the west also appeared broken ridges. I decided to travel about south-west, as it appeared the least stony. In eight miles we had met the usual country. At eighteen we turned the horses out for an hour on a burnt patch, during which the thermometer stood at 94° in the shade ; we then left for some ridges through a small gap or pass between two hills, which formed into a small creek-channel. As it was now dark, we camped near the pass, without water, having travelled thirty- five miles. In the morning we found the country in front of us to consist of a small well- grassed plain, which was as green, as at the last camp. The horses rambled in search of water up into a small gully, which joins this one ; it had a few gum-trees on it. We saw a place where the natives had dug for water, but not very recently. We scratched out a lot of sand with our hands, and some water percolated through, but the hole was too deep to get any out for the horses, as we had no means of removing the sand, having no shovel. Upon searching farther up the gully we found some good-sized rock-holes, but unfortunately they were all dry. We next ascended a hill to view the sur- rounding country, and endeavour to discover if there was any feature in any direction to induce us to visit, and where we might find a fresh supply of water. There were several fires rajjinCT in various directions upon the southern horizon, and the whole atmosphere was thick with a smoky haze. After A HIGH MOUNTAIN. 89 a long" and anxious scrutiny through the smoke far, very far away, a little to the west of south. I descried the outline of a ransfe of hills, and rit-ht in the smoke of one fire an exceedingly high and abruptly-ending mountain loomed. To the south- eastwards other ranges appeared ; they seemed to lie nearly north and south. The high mountain was very remote ; it must be at least seventy or seventy-five miles away, with nothing apparently between but a country similar to that immediately before and behind us ; that is to say, sandhills and scrub. I was, however, de- lighted to perceive any feature for which to make as a medium point, and which might help to change the character and monotony of the country over which I have been wandering so long. I thought it not improbable that some extensive watercourses may proceed from these new ranges which might lead me at last away to the west. For the present, not being able to get water at this little glen, although I believe a supply can be obtained with a shovel, I decided to return to the tarn at Glen Edith, which was now fifty-five miles away, remove the camp to the newly-found creek at the Vale of Tempe, and then return here, open out this water- ing place with a shovel, and make a straight line for the newly-discovered high mountain to the south. By th-e time these conclusions had been arrived at, and our wanderings about the rocks completed, it was nearly midday ; and as we had thirty-five miles to travel to get back to the creek, it took us all the remainder of the day to do so ; and it was late when we again encamped upon its friendly banks. The thermometer to-day had stood at 96'. We 90 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. now had our former tracks to return upon to the tarn. The morning was cool and pleasant, and we arrived at the depot early. Alec Robinson informed me that he believed some natives had been prowling about the camp in our absence, as the little dog had been greatly perturbed during two of the nights we were away. It was very possible that some natives had come to the tarn for water, as well as to spy out who and what and how many vile and wicked intruders had found their way into this secluded spot ; but as they must have walked about on the rocks they left no traces of their visit. Oct. 15th. — This morning's meal was to be the last we should make at our friendly little tarn, whose opportune waters, ripe figs, miniature moun- tains, and imitation fortresses, will long linger in my recollection. Opposite the rocks in which the water lies, and opposite the camp also, is a series of small fort-like, stony eminences, standing apart ; these form one side of the glen ; the other is formed by the rocks at the base of the main ridge, where the camp and water are situated. This really was a most delightful little spot, though it certainly had one great nuisance, which is almost inseparable from pine-trees, namely ants. These horrid pests used to crawl into and over everything and everybody, by night as well as by day. The horses took their last drink at the little sweet-watered tarn, and we moved away for our new home to the south. LEAVE GLEN EDITH. 91 CHAPTER VI. FROM I5TH OCTOBER, 1872, TO 3IST JANUARY, 1873. Move the camp to new creek — ^Revisit the pass — Hornets and diamond birds — More ornamented caves — Map study — Start for the mountain — A salt lake — A barrier — Brine ponds — Horses nearly lost- — Exhausted horses — Follow the lake — A prospect wild and weird — Mount Olga — Sleepless animals — A day's rest — ^A National Gallery — Signal for natives — The lake again — High hill westward — Mount Unapproachable — McNicol's range — Heat increasing — Sufferings and dejection of the horses — Worrill's Pass — Glen Thirsty — Food all gone — Review of our situation — Horse staked — Pleasure of a bath — A journey eastward — Better regions — A fine creek — Fine open country — King's Creek — Carmichael's Crag — Penny's Creek^ — Stokes's Creek — A swim — Bagot's Creek — Termination of the range — Trickett's Creek — George Gill's range — Petermann's Creek — Return — Two natives — A host of aborigines — Break up the depot — Improvement in the horses — Carmichael's resolve — Levi's Range — Follow the Petermann — Enter a glen — Up a tree — Rapid retreat — • Escape glen — A new creek — Fall over a bank — Middleton's Pass — Good country — Friendly natives — Rogers's Pass — Seymour's Range — A fenced-in water-hole — Briscoe's Pass — The Finke — Resight the pillar — Remarks on the Finke — Reach the telegraph line— Native boys — I buy one — The Charlotte Waters — Colonel War burton — Arrive at the Peake — News of Dick — Reach Adelaide. It was late In the day when we left Glen Edith, and consequently very much later by the time we had unpacked all the horses at the end of our twenty- nine mile stage ; it was then too dark to reach the 92 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. lower or best water-holes. To-day there was an uncommon reversal of the usual order in the weather — the early part of the day being hot and sultry, but towards evening the sky became overcast and cloudy, and the evening set in cold and v/indy. Next morning we found that one horse had staked himself in the coronet very severely, and that he was quite lame. I got some mulga wood out of the wound, but am afraid there is much still remain- ing. This wood, used by the natives for spear-heads, contains a virulent poisonous property, and a spear or stake wound with it is very dangerous. The little mare that foaled at Mount Udor, and was such an object of commiseration, has picked up wonderfully, and is now in good working condition. I have another mare, Marzetti, soon to foal ; but as she is fat, I do not anticipate having to destroy her progeny. We did not move the camp to-day. Numbers of bronze-winged pigeons came to drink, and we shot several of them. The following day Mr. Carmichael and I again mounted our horses, taking with us a week's supply of rations, and started off intending to visit the high mountain seen at our last farthest point. We left Alec Robinson again in charge of the camp, as he had now got quite used to it, and said he liked it. He always had my little dog Monkey for a companion. When travelling through the spinifex we carried the little animal. He is an excellent watchdog, and not a bird can come near the camp without his giving warning. Alec had plenty of firearms and ammunition to defend himself with, in case of an attack from the natives. This, however, I did not anticipate ; indeed, I wished they would come (in a ATTEMPT TO REACH THE HIGH MOUNTAIN. 93 friendly way), and had instructed Alec to endeavour to detain one or two of them until my return if they should chance to approach. Alec was a very strange, indeed disagreeable and sometimes uncivil, sort of man ; he had found our travels so different from his preconceived ideas, as he thought he was going on a picnic, and he often grumbled and declared he would like to go back again. However, to remain at the camp, with nothing whatever to do and plenty to eat, admirably suited him, and 1 felt no compunction in leaving him by himself. I would not have asked him to remain if I were in any way alarmed at his position. We travelled now by a slightly different route, more easterly, as there were other ridges in that direction, and we might find another and a better watering place than that at the pass. It is only at or near ridges in this strange region that the tra- veller can expect to find water, as in the sandy beds of scrub intervening between them, water would simply sink away. We passed through some very thick mulga, which, being mostly dead, ripped our pack-bags, clothes, and skin, as we had continually to push the persistent boughs and branches aside to penetrate it. We reached a hill in twenty miles, and saw at a glance that no favourable signs of obtaining water existed, for it was merely a pile of loose stones or rocks standing up above the scrubs around. The view was desolate in the extreme ; we had now come thirty miles, but we pushed on ten miles for another hill, to the south-east, and after penetrating the usual scrub, we reached its base in the dark, and camped. In the morning I climbed the hill, but no water could be seen or 94 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. procured. This hill was rugged with broken granite boulders, scrubby with mulga and bushes, and covered with triodia to its summit. To the south a vague and strange horizon was visible ; it appeared flat, as though a plain of great extent existed there, but as the mirage played upon it, I could not make anything of it. My old friend the high mountain loomed large and abrupt at a great distance off, and it bore 8° 30' west from here, too great a distance for us to proceed to it at once, without first getting water for our horses, as it was possible that no water might exist even in the neighbourhood of such a considerable mountain. The horses rambled in the night ; when they were found we started away for the little pass and glen where we knew water was to be got, and which was now some thirty miles away to the west-north-west. We reached it somewhat late. The day was hot, ther- mometer 98° in shade, and the horses very thirsty, but they could get no water until we had dug a place for them. Although we had reached our camping ground our day's work was only about to commence. We were not long in obtaining enough water for ourselves, such as it was — thick and dirty with a nauseous flavour — but first we had to tie the horses up, to prevent them jumping in on us. We found to our grief that but a poor supply was to be expected, and though we had not to dig very deep, yet we had to remove an enormous quantity of sand, so as to create a sufficient surface to get water to run in, and had to dig a tank twenty feet long by six feet deep, and six feet wide at the bottom, though at the top it was much wider. I may remark — and what I now say applies to almost every other water ORNAMENTED CAVES. 95 I ever got by digging in all my wanderings — that whenever we commenced to dig, a swarm of large and small red hornets immediately came around us, and, generally speaking, diamond birds {Amadiua) would also come and twitter near, and when water was got, would drink in great numbers. With regard to the hornets, though they swarmed round our heads and faces in clouds, no one was ever stung by them, nature and instinct informing them that we were their friends. We worked and waited for two hours before one of our three horses could obtain a drink. The water came so slowly in that it took nearly all the night before the last animal's thirst was assuaged, as by the time the third got a drink, the first was ready to begin again, and they kept returning all through the night. We rested our horses here to-day to allow them to fill them- selves with food, as no doubt they will require all the support they can get to sustain them in their work before we reach the distant mountain. We passed the day in enlarging the tank, and were glad to find that, though no increase in the supply of water was observable, still there seemed no diminu- tion, as now a horse could fill himself at one spell. We took a stroll up into the rocks and gullies of the ridges, and found a Troglodytes' cave ornamented with the choicest specimens of aboriginal art. The rude figures of snakes wen^ the principal objects, but hands, and devices for shields were also con- spicuous. One hieroglyph was most striking ; it consisted of two Roman numerals — a V and an I, placed together and representing the figure VI ; they were both daubed over with spots, and were painted with red ochre. Several large rock-holes 96 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. were seen, but they had all long lain dry. A few cypress pines grew upon the rocks in several places. The day was decidedly hot ; the thermometer stood at 1 00° in the shade at three o'clock, and we had to fix up a cloth for an awning to get sufficient shade to sit under. Our only intellectual occupation was the study of a small map of Australia, showing the routes of the Australian explorers. How often we noted the facility with which other and more fortu- nate travellers dropped upon fine creeks and large rivers. We could only envy them their good for- tune, and hope the future had some prizes in store for us also. The next morning, after taking three hours to water our horses, we started on the bearing of the high mount, which could not be seen from the low ground, the bearing being south 18° west. We got clear of the low hills of the glen, and almost immediately entered thick scrubs, varied by high sandhills, with casuarina and triodia on them. At twelve miles I noticed the sandhills became denuded of timber, and on our right a small and apparently grassy plain was visible ; I took these sio^ns as a favourable indication of a chanQ^e of country. At three miles farther we had a white salt channel right in front of us, with some sheets of water in it ; upon approaching I found it a perfect bog, and the water brine itself. We went round this channel to the left, and at length found a place firm enough to cross. We continued upon our course, and on ascendino- a high sandhill I found we had upon our right hand, and stretching away to the west, an enormous salt expanse, and it appeared as if we had hit exactly upon the eastern edge of it, at which we rejoiced greatly for a time. Continuing A SALT EXPANSE. 97 on our course over treeless sandhills for a mile or two, we found we had not escaped this feature quite so easily, for it was now right in our road ; it appeared, however, to be bounded by sandhills a little more to the left, eastwards ; so we went in that direction, but at each succeeding mile we saw more and more of this objectionable feature ; it con- tinually pushed us farther and farther to the east, until, having travelled about fifteen miles, and had it constantly on our right, it swept round under some more sandhills which hid it from us, till it lay east and west right athwart our path. It was most per- plexing to me to be thus confronted by such an obstacle. We walked a distance on its surface, and to our weight it seemed firm enough, but the instant we tried our horses they almost disappeared. The surface was dry and encrusted with salt, but brine spurted out at every step the horses took. We dug a well under a sandhill, but only obtained brine. This obstruction was apparently six or seven miles across, but whether what we took for its opposite shores were islands or the main, I could not determine. We saw several sandhill islands, some very high and deeply red, to which the mirage gave the effect of their floating in an ocean of water. Farther along the shore eastwards were several high red sandhills ; to these we went and dug another well and q-qi more brine. We could see the lake stretching away east or east-south-east as far as the glasses could carry the vision. Here we made another attempt to cross, but the horses were all floundering: about in the bottomless bed of this infernal lake before we could look round. I made VOL. I. H 98 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. sure they would be swallowed up before our eyes. We were powerless to help them, for we could not get near owing to the bog, and we sank up over our knees, where the crust was broken, in hot salt mud. All I could do was to crack my whip to prevent the horses from ceasing to exert themselves, and although it was but a few moments that they were in this danger, to; me it seemed an eternity. They staggered at last out of the quagmire, heads, backs, saddles, everything covered with blue mud, their mouths were filled with salt mud also, and they were completely exhausted when they reached firm ground. We let them rest in the shade of some quandong trees, which grew in great numbers round about here. From Mount Udor to the shores of this lake the country had been continually falling. The northern base of each ridge, as we travelled, seemed higher by many feet than the southern, and I had hoped to come upon something better than this. I thought such a continued fall of country might lead to a consider- able watercourse or freshwater basin ; but this salt bog was dreadful, the more especially as it pre- vented me reaching the mountain which appeared so inviting beyond. Not seeing any possibility of pushing south, and thinkinof after all it migrht not be so far round the lake to the west, I turned to where we had struck the first salt channel, and resolved to try what a more westerly line would produce. The channel in question was now some fifteen miles away to the north-Westward, and by the time we got back there the day was done and " the darkness had fallen from the wings of night." We had travelled nearly fifty SEARCH FOR WATER. 99 miles, the horses were almost dead ; the thermometer stood at 1 00° in the shade when we rested under the quandongs. In the night blankets were un- endurable. Had there been any food for them the horses could not eat for thirst, and were too much fatigued by yesterday's toil to go out of sight of our camping place. We followed along the course of the lake north of west for seven miles, when we were checked by a salt arm running north-eastwards ; this we could not cross until we had gone up it a distance of three miles. Then we made for some low ridges lying west-south-west and reached them in twelve miles. There was neither watercourse, channel, nor rock-holes ; we wandered for several miles round the ridges, looking for water, but with- out success, and got back on our morning's tracks when we had travelled thirty miles. From the top of these ridges the lake could be seen stretching away to the west or west-south-west in vast propor- tions, having^ several salt arms runnino- back from it at various distances. Very far to the west was another ridge, but it was too distant for me to reach now, as to-night the horses would have been two nights without water, and the probability was they would get none there if they reached it. I deter- mined to visit it, however, but I felt I must first return to the tank in the little glen to refresh the exhausted horses. From where we are, the prospect is wild and weird, with the white bed of the great lake sweeping nearly the whole southern horizon. The country near the lake consists of open sandhills, thickly bushed and covered with triodia ; farther back orrew casuarinas and mulo^a scrubs. It was long past the middle of the day when I 100 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. descended from the hill. We had no alternative but to return to the only spot where we knew water was to be had ; this was now distant twenty-one miles to the north-east, so we departed In a straight line for it. I was heartily annoyed at being baffled in my attempt to reach the mountain, which I now thought more than ever would offer a route out of this terrible region ; but it seemed impossible to escape from it. I named this eminence Mount Olga, and the great salt feature which obstructed me Lake Amadeus, in honour of two enlightened royal patrons of science. The horses were now exceedingly weak ; the bogging of yesterday had taken a great deal of strength out of them, and the heat of the last two days had contributed to weaken them (the thermometer to-day went up to ioi° in shade). They could now only travel slowly, so that it was late at night when we reached the little tank. Fifty miles over such disheartening country to-day has been almost too much for the poor animals. In the tank there was only sufficient water for one horse ; the others had to be tied up and wait their turns to drink, and the water perco- lated so slowly through the sand it was nearly mid- night before they were all satisfied and begun to feed. What wonderful creatures horses are ! They can work for two and three days and go three nights without water, but they can go for ever without sleep ; it is true they do sleep, but equally true that they can go without sleeping. If I took my choice of all creation for a beast to guard and give me warning while I slept, I would select the horse, for he is the most sleepless creature Nature has made. Horses seem to know this ; for if you should by A NATIONAL GALLERY. chance catch one asleep he seems very indignant either with you or himself. It was absolutely necessary to give our horses a day's rest, as they looked so much out of sorts this morning. A quarter of the day was spent in water- ing them, and by that time it was quite hot, and we had to erect an awning for shade. We were over- run by ants, and pestered by flies, so in self-defence we took another walk into the gullies, revisited the aboriginal National Gallery of paintings and hiero- glyphics, and then returned to our shade and our ants. Again we pored over the little German map, and again envied more prosperous explorers. The thermometer had stood at ioi° in the shade, and the greatest pleasure we experienced that day was to see the orb of day descend. The atmosphere had been surcharged all day with smoke, and haze hune over all the land, for the Autochthones were ever busy at their hunting fires, especially upon the opposite side of the great lake ; but at night the blaze of nearer ones kept up a perpetual light, and though the fires may have been miles away they appeared to be quite close. I also had fallen into the custom of the country, and had set fire to several extensive beds of triodia, which had burned with unabated fury ; so brilliant, indeed, was the illumina- tion that I could see to read by the light. I kindled these fires in hopes some of the natives might come and interview us, but no doubt in such a poorly watered region the native population cannot be great, and the few who do inhabit it had evidently abandoned this particular portion of it until rains should fall and enable them to hunt while water remained in it. I02 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. Last night, the 23rd October, was sultry, and blankets utterly useless. The flies and ants were wide awake, and the only thing we could congratu- late ourselves upon, was the absence of mosquitoes. At dawn the thermometer stood at 70°, and a warm breeze blew gently from the north. The horses were found early, but as it took nearly three hours to water them we did not leave the glen till past eight o'clock. This time I intended to return to the ridges we had last left, and which now bore a little to the west of south-west, twenty-one miles away. We made a detour so as to inspect some other ridges near where we had been last. Stony and low ridgy ground was first met, but the scrubs were all around. At fifteen miles we came upon a little firm clayey plain with some salt bushes, and it also had upon it some clay pans, but they had long been dry. We found the northern face of the ridges just as waterless as the southern, which we had previously searched. The far hills or ridges to the west, which I now intended to visit, bore nearly west. Another salt bush plain was next crossed ; this was nearly three miles long. We now gave the horses an hour's spell, the thermometer showing 102° in the shade; then, re-saddling, we went on, and it was nine o'clock at night when we found our- selves under the shadows of the hills we had steered for, having them on the north of us. I searched in the dark, but could find no feature likely to supply us with water ; we had to encamp in a nest of triodia without any water, having travelled forty-eight miles through the usual kind of country that occupies this region's space. At day- H^lu the thermometer registered 70° that being the A BOGGED HORSE. 103 lowest during the night. On ascending the hill above us, there was but one feature to gaze upon — the lake still stretching away, not only in un- diminished, but evidently increasing size, towards the west and north-west. Several lateral channels were thrown out from the parent bed at various distances, some broad and some narrow. A line of ridges, with one hill much more prominent than any I had seen about this country, appeared close down upon the shores of the lake ; it bore from the hill I stood upon south 68° west, and was about twenty miles off. A long broad salt arm, however, ran up at the back of it between it and me, but just opposite there appeared a narrow place that I thouo-ht we mi^ht cross to reach it. The ridge I was on was red granite, but there was neither creek nor rock-hole about it. We now departed for the high hill westward, crossing a very boggy salt channel with great difficulty, at five miles ; in five more we came to the arm. It appeared firm, but unfortunately one of the horses got fright- fully bogged, and it was only by the most frantic exertions that we at length got him out. The bottom of this dreadful feature, if it has a bottom, seems composed entirely of hot, blue, briny mud. Our exertions in extricating the horse made us extremely thirsty ; the hill looked more inviting the nearer we got to it, so, still hoping to reach it, I followed up the arm for about seven miles in a north- west direction. It proved, however, quite impass- able, and it seemed utterly useless to attempt to reach the range, as we could not tell how far we might have to travel before we could get round the arm. I believe it continues in a semicircle and I04 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. joins the lake again, thus isolating the hill I wished to visit. This now seemed an island it was impossible to reach. We were sixty-five miles away from the only water we knew of, with no likelihood of any nearer ; there might certainly be water at the mount I wished to reach, but it was unapproachable, and I called it by that name ; no doubt, had I been able to reach it, my progress would still have been impeded to the west by the huge lake itself. I could get no water except brine upon its shores, and I had no appliances to distil that ; could I have done so, I would have followed this feature, hideous as it is, as no doubt sooner or later some watercourses must fall into it either from the south or the west. We were, however, a hundred miles from the camp, with only one man left there, and sixty-five from the nearest water. I had no choice but to retreat, baffled, like Eyre with his Lake Torrens in 1840, at all points. On the southern shore of the lake, and apparently a very long way off, a range of hills bore south 30° west ; this range had a pinkish appearance and seemed of some length. Mr. Carmichael wished me to call it McNicol's Range, after a friend of his, and this I did. We turned our wretched horses' heads once more in the direction of our little tank, and had good reason perhaps to thank our stars that we got away alive from the lone unhallowed shore of this pernicious sea. We kept on twenty-eight miles before we camped, and looked at two or three places, on the way ineffectually, for some signs of water, having gone forty-seven miles ; thermometer in shade 103°, the heat increasing one degree a day for several days. When we camped we were hungry, REACH THE LITTLE TANK. 105 thirsty, tired, covered all over with dry salt mud ; so that it is not to be wondered at if our spirits were not at a very high point, especially as we were making a forced retreat. The night was hot, cloudy, and sultry, and rain clouds gathered in the sky. At about i a.m. the distant rumblings of thunder were heard to the west-north-west, and I was in hopes some rain might fall, as it was appa- rently approaching ; the thunder was not loud, but the lightning was most extraordinarily vivid ; only a few drops of rain fell, and the rest of the night was even closer and more sultry than before. Ere the stars had left the sky we were in our saddles again ; the horses looked most pitiable objects, their flanks drawn in, the natural vent was distended to an open and extraordinary cavity ; their eyes hollow and sunken, which is always the case with horses when greatly in want of water. Two days of such stages will thoroughly test the finest horse that ever stepped. We had thirty-six miles yet to travel to reach the water. The horses being so jaded, it was late in the afternoon when they at last crawled into the little glen ; the last few miles being over stones made the pace more slow. Not even their knowledge of the near presence of water availed to inspirit them in the least ; pro- bably they knew they would have to wait for hours at the tank, when they arrived, before their cravings for water could be appeased. The thermometer to-day was 104° in the shade. When we arrived the horses had walked 1 3 1 miles without a drink, and it was no wonder that the poor creatures were exhausted. When one horse had drank what little water there was, we had to re-dig the tank, for the io6 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. wind or some other cause had knocked a vast amount of the sand into it again. Some natives also had visited the place while we were away, their fresh tracks were visible in the sand around, and on the top of the tank. They must have stared to see such a piece of excavation in their territory. When the horses did get water, two of them rolled, and groaned, and kicked, so that I thought they were going to die ; one was a mare, she seemed the worst, another was a strong young horse which had carried me well, the third was my old favourite riding-horse ; this time he had only carried the pack, and was badly bogged ; he was the only one that did not appear distressed when filled with water, the other two lay about in evident pain until morning. About the middle of the night thunder was again heard, and flash after flash of even more vivid lightnings than that of the previous night enlightened the glen ; so bright were the flashes, being alternately fork and sheet lightning, that for nearly an hour the glare never ceased. The thunder was much louder than last night's, and a slight mizzling rain for about an hour fell. The barometer had fallen considerably for the last two days, so I anticipated a change. The rain was too slight to be of any use ; the temperature of the atmosphere, however, was quite changed, for by the morning the thermometer was down to 48°. The horses were not fit to travel, so we had to remain, with nothing to do, but consult the litde map again, and lay off my position on it. My farthest point I found to be in latitude 24° 38' and longitude 130'^. For the second time I had reached nearly the same meridian. I had been repulsed at GLEN THIRSTY. 107 both points, which were about a hundred miles apart, in the first instance by dry stony ranges in the midst of dense scrubs, and in the second by a huge salt lake equally destitute of fresh water. It appears to me plain enough that a much more northerly or else more southerly course must be pursued to reach the western coast, at all events in such a country, it will be only by time and perse- verance that any explorer can penetrate it. I think I remarked before that we entered this little Qrlen through a pass about half-a-mile long, between two hills of red sandstone. I named this Worrill's Pass, after another friend of Mr. Carmichael. The little glen in which we dug out the tank I could only call Glen Thirsty, for we never returned to it but ourselves and our horses, were choking for water. Our supply of rations, although we had eked it out with the greatest possible economy, was consumed, for we brought only a week's supply, and we had now been absent ten days from home, and w^e should have to fast all to-morrow, until we reached the depot ; but as the horses were unable to carry us, we were forced to remain. During the day I had a long conversation with Mr. Carmichael upon our affairs in general, and our stock of provisions in particular ; the conclusion we arrived at was, that having been nearly three months out, we had not progressed so far in the time as we had expected. We had found the country so dry that until rains fell, it seemed scarcely probable that we should be able to penetrate farther to the west, and if we had to remain in depot for a month or two, it was necessary by some means to economise our stores, and the only way to do so was to dispense io8 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. with the services of Alec Robinson. It would be necessary, of course, in the first place, to find a creek to the eastward, which would take him to the Finke, and by the means of the same watercourse we might eventually get round to the southern shores of Lake Amadeus, and reach Mount Olga at last. In our journey up the Finke two or three creeks had joined from the west, and as we were now beyond the sources of any of these, it would be necessary to discover some road to one or the other before Robinson could be parted with. By dispensing with his services, as he was willing to go, we should have sufficient provisions left to enable us to hold out for seme months longer : even if we had to wait so long as the usual rainy season in this part of the country, which is about January and February, we should still have several months' provisions to start again with. In all these considerations Mr. Car- michael fully agreed, and it was decided that I should inform Alec of our resolution so soon as we returned to the camp. After the usual nearly three hours' work to water our horses, we turned our backs for the last time upon Glen Thirsty, where we had so often returned with exhausted and choking horses. I must admit that I was orettin^ anxious about Robinson and the state of things at the camp. In going through Worrill's Pass, we noticed that scarcely a tree had escaped from being struck by the light- ning ; branches and boughs lay scattered about, and several pines from the summits of the ridges had been blasted from their eminence. I was not very much surprised, for I expected to be lightning-struck myself, as I scared)- ever saw such lightning before. A JO URNE V EASTWARDS. 109 We got back to Robinson and the camp at 5 p.m. My old horse that carried the pack had gone quite lame, and this caused us to travel very slowly. Robinson was alive and quite well, and the little dog was overjoyed to greet us. Robinson reported that natives had been frequently in the neighbour- hood, and had lit fires close to the camp, but would not show themselves. Marzetti's mare had foaled, the progeny being a daughter ; the horse that was staked was worse, and I found my old horse had also ran a mulga stake into his coronet. I probed the wounds of both, but could not get any wood out. Carmichael and I both thought we would like a day's rest ; and if I did not do much work, at least I thought a good deal. The lame horses are worse : the poisonous mulga must be in the wounds, but I can't get it out. What a pleasure it is, not only to have plenty of water to drink, but actually to have sufficient for a bath ! I told Robinson of my views regarding him, but said he must yet remain until some eastern waters could be found. On the 30th October, Mr, Carmichael and I, with three fresh horses, started again. In my travels southerly I had noticed a conspicuous range of some elevation quite distinct from the ridges at which our camp was fixed, and lying nearly east, where an almost overhanging crag formed its north-western face. This rano-e I now decided to visit. To get out of the ridges in which our creek exists, we had to follow the trend of a valley formed by what are sometimes called reap- hook hills ; these ran about east-south east. In a few miles we crossed an insignificant little creek with a few gum-trees ; it had a small pool of water no AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. in its bed : the valley was well grassed and open, and the triodia was also absent, A small pass ushered us into a new valley, in which were several peculiar conical hills. Passing over a saddle-like pass, between two of them, we came to a flat, open valley running all the way to the foot of the new range, with a creek channel between. The range appeared very red and rocky, being composed of enormous masses of red sandstone ; the upper portion of it was bare, with the exception of a few cypress pines, moored in the rifled rock, and, I suppose, proof to the tempest's shock. A fine-looking creek, lined with gum-trees, issued from a gorge. We followed up the channel, and Mr. Carmichael found a fine little sheet of water in a stony hole, about 400 yard: long and forty yards wide. This had about fou feet of water in it ; the grass was green, and a^ round the foot of the range the country was oper beautifully grassed, green, and delightful to look at Having found so eligible a spot, we encamped how different from our former line of march ! We strolled up through the rocky gorge, and found several rock reservoirs with plenty of water ; some palm-like Zamias were seen along the rocks. Down the channel, about south-west, the creek passed through a kind of low gorge about three miles away. Smoke was seen there, and no doubt it was an en- campment of the natives. Since the heavy though dry thunderstorm at Glen Thirsty, the temperature has been much cooler, I called this King's Creek. Another on the western flat beyond joins it. I called the north-west point of this range Carmichael's Crag. The range trended a little south of east, and we decided to follow along its southern face, which R CK RESER VOIR. was open, grassy, and beautifully green ; it was hy far the most agreeable and pleasant country we had met. At about five miles we crossed another creek coming immediately out of the range, where it issued from under a high and precipitous wall of rock, under- neath which was a splendid deep and pellucid basin of the purest water, which came rushing into and out PENNY S CKEEK. of it through fissures in the mountain : it then formed a small swamp thickly set with reeds, which covered an area of several acres, having plenty of water among them. I called this Penny's Creek. Half a mile beyond it was a similar one and reed bed, but no such splendid rock reservoir. Farther along the range other channels issued too, with fine rock water-holes. At eighteen miles we reached a much 112 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. larger one than we had yet seen : I hoped this might reach the Finke. We followed it into the range, where it came down through a glen : here we found three fine rock-holes with good supplies of water in them. The glen and rock is all red sandstone : the place reminded me somewhat of Captain Sturt's Depot Glen in the Grey ranges of his Central Australian Expedition, only the rock formation is different, though a cliff overhangs both places, and there are other points of resemblance. I named this Stokes's Creek. We rested here an hour and had a swim in one of the rocky basins. How different to regions west- ward, where we could not get enough water to drink, let alone to swim in ! The water ran down through the glen as far as the rock-holes, where it sank into the ground. Thermometer 102° to-day. We con-, tinued along the range, having a fine stretch of, open grassy country to travel upon, and in five milesj reached another creek, whose reed beds and watei filled the whole glen. This I named Bagot's Creekj For some miles no other creek issued, till, approach- ing the eastern end of the range, we had a piece oj broken stony ground and some mulga for a few|j miles, when we came to a sudden fall into a lowei valley, which was again open, grassy, and green.' We could then see that the range ended, but sent out one more creek, which meandered down thej valley towards some other hills beyond ; this valleyl was of a clayey soil, and the creek had some clayl holes with water in them. Following it three milesj farther, we found that it emptied itself into a much larger stony mountain stream ; I named this Trickett's Creek, after a friend of Mr. Carmichael's. The GILLS RANGE. 113 range which had thrown out so many creeks, and contained so much water, and which is over forty- miles in length, I named George Gill's Range, after my brother-in-law. The country round its foot is by far the best I have seen in this region ; and could it be transported to any civilised land, its springs, glens, gorges, ferns, Zamias, and flowers, would charm the eyes and hearts of toil-worn men who are condemned to live and die in crowded towns. The new creek now just discovered had a large stony water-hole immediately above and below the junction of Trickett's Creek, and as we approached the lower one, I noticed several native wurleys just deserted ; their owners having seen us while we only thought of them, had fled at our approach, and left all their valuables behind. These consisted of clubs, spears, shields, drinking vessels, yam sticks, with other and all the usual appliances of well-furnished aboriginal gentlemen's establishments. Three young native dog-puppies came out, however, to welcome us, but when we dismounted and they smelt us, not being used to such refined odours as our garments probably exhaled, they fled howling. The natives had left some food cooking, and when I cooeyed they answered, but would not come near. This creek was of some size ; it seemed to pass through a valley in a new range further eastwards. It came from the north-west, apparently draining the northern side of Gill's Range. I called it Petermann's Creek. We were now sixty-five miles from our depot, and had been most successful in our efforts to find a route to allow of the departure of Robinson, as it appeared that this creek would surely reach the Finke, though we afterwards found VOL. I. I 114 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. it did not. I intended upon returning here to endeavour to discover a line of country round the south-eastern extremity of Lake Amadeus, so as to reach Mount Olga at last. We now turned our horses' heads again for our home camp, and con- tinued travelling until we reached Stokes's Creek, where we encamped after a good long day's march. This morning, as we were approaching Penny's Creek, we saw two natives looking most intently at our outgoing horse tracks, along which they were slowly walking, with their backs towards us. They neither saw nor heard us until we were close upon their heels. Each carried two enormously long spears, two-thirds mulga wood and one-third reed at the throwing end, of course having the instrument with which they project these spears, called by some tribes of natives only, but indiscriminately all over the country by whites, a wommerah. It is in the form of a flat ellipse, elongated to a sort of tail at the holding end, and short-pointed at the pro- jecting end ; a kangaroo's claw or wild dog's tooth is firmly fixed by gum and gut-strings. The pro- jectile force of this implement is enormous, and these spears can be thrown with the greatest precision for more than a hundred yards. They also had narrow shields, three to four feet long, to protect themselves from hostile spears, with a handle cut out in the centre. These two natives had their hair tied up in a kind of chignon at the back of the head, the hair being dragged back off the forehead from infancy. This mode gave them a wild though somewhat effeminate appearance ; others, again, wear their hair in long thick curls reach- TWO NATIVES. 115 ing down the shoulders, beautifully elaborated with iguanas' or emus' fat and red ochre. This applies only to the men ; the women's hair is worn either cut with flints or bitten off short. So soon as the two natives heard, and then looking round saw us, they scampered off like emus, running along as close to the ground as it is possible for any two-legged creature to do. One was quite a young fellow, the other full grown. They ran up the side of the hills, and kept travelling along parallel to us ; but though we stopped and called, and signalled with boughs, they would not come close, and the oftener I tried to come near them on foot, the faster they ran. They continued alongside us until King's Creek was reached, where we rested the horses for an hour. We soon became aware that a number of natives were in our vicinity, our original two yelling and shouting to inform the others of our advent, and presently we saw a whole nation of them coming from the glen or gorge to the south- west, where I had noticed camp-fires on my first arrival here. The new people were also shouting and yelling in the most furious and demoniacal manner ; and our former two, as though deputed by the others, now approached us much nearer than before, and came within twenty yards of us, but holding their spears fixed in their wommerahs, in such a position that they could use them instantly if they desired. The slightest incident might have induced them to spear us, but we appeared to be at our ease, and endeavoured to parley with them. The men were not handsome or fat, but were very well made, and, as is the case with most of the natives of these parts, were rather tall, viz. five feet eight I 2 ii6 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. and nine inches. When they had come close enouo-h, the elder began to harangue us, and evi- dently desired us to know that we were trespassers, and were to be off forthwith, as he waved us away in the direction we had come from. The whole host then took up the signal, howled, yelled, and waved their hands and weapons at us. Fortunately, however, they did not actually attack us ; we were not very well prepared for attack, as we had only a revolver each, our guns and rifles being left with Robinson. As our horses were frightened and would not feed, we hurried our departure, when we were saluted with rounds of cheers and blessings, i.e. yells and curses in their charming dialect, until we were fairly out of sight and hearing. On reach- ino" the camp. Alec reported that no natives had been seen during our absence. On inspecting the two lame horses, it appeared they were worse than ever. We had a very sudden dry thunderstorm, which cooled the air. Next day I sent Alec and Carmichael over to the first little live- mile creek eastwards with the two lame horses, so that we can pick them up en route to-morrow. They reported that the horses could scarcely travel at all ; I thought if I could get them to Penny's Creek I would leave them there. This little depot camp was at length broken up, after it had existed here from 15th October to 5th November. I never expected, after being nearly three months out, that I should be pushing to the eastwards, when every hope and wish I had was to go in exactly the opposite direction, and I could only console myself with the thought that I was going to the east to get to the west at last. I NUMBERS OF AB ORIGINES. 1 1 7 have great hopes that if I can once set my foot upon Mount Olga, my route to the west may be unim- peded. I had not seen all the horses together for some time, and when they were mustered this morning, I found they had all greatly improved in condition, and almost the fattest among them was the little mare that had foaled at Mount Udor. Marzetti's mare looked very well also. It was past midday when we turned our backs upon Tempe's Vale. At the five-mile creek we got the two lame horses, and reached King's Creek somewhat late in the afternoon. As we neared it, we saw several, natives' smokes, and immediately the whole region seemed alive with aborigines, men, women, and children running down from the highest points of the mountain to join the tribe below, where they all congregated. The yelling, howling, shrieking, and gesticulating they kept up was, to say the least, annoying. When we began to unpack the horses, they crowded closer round us, carrying their knotted sticks, long spears, and other fighting implements. I did not notice any ^ boomerangs among them, and I did not request them to send for any. They were growing very troublesome, and evidently meant mischief, I rode towards a mob of them and cracked my whip, which had no effect in dispersing them. They made a sudden pause, and then gave a sudden shout or howl. It seemed as if they knew, or had heard something, of white men's ways, for when I unstrapped my rifle, and holding it up, warning them away, to my great astonishment they de- parted ; they probably wanted to find out if we possessed such things, and I trust they were satis- ii8 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. fied, for they gave us up apparently as a bad lot. It appeared the exertion of travelling had im- proved the go of the lame horses, so I took them alone with the others in the morningr • I did not like the idea of leaving them anywhere on this range, as the natives would certainly spear, and probably cat them. We got them along to Stokes's Creek, and encamped at the swimming rock-hole. After our frugal supper a circumstance occurred which completely put an end to my expedition. Mr. Carmichael informed me that he had made up his mind not to continue in the field any longer, for as Alec Robinson was going away, he should do so too. Of course I could not control him ; he was a volunteer, and had contributed towards the expenses of the expedition. We had never fallen out, and I thought he was as ardent in the cause of exploration as I was, so that when he informed me of his resolve it came upon me as a complete surprise. My arguments were all in vain ; in vain I showed how, with the stock of provisions we had, we might keep the field for months. I even offered to retreat to the Finke, so that we should not have such arduous work for want of water, but it was all useless. It was with distress that I lay down on my blankets that night, after what he had said. I scarcely knew what to do. I had yet a lot of horses heavily loaded with provisions ; but to take them out into a waterless, desert country by myself, was impossible. We only went a short distance — to Bagot's Creek, where I renewed my arguments. Mr. Carmichael's reply was, that he had made up CARMICHA EL'S RE SOL VE. 119 his mind and nothing should alter it; the consequence was that with one companion I had, so to speak, discharged, and another who discharged himself, any further exploration was out of the question. I had no other object now in view but to hasten my return to civilisation, in hopes of reorganising my expedition. We were now in full retreat for the telegraph line ; but as I still traversed a region previously unexplored, I may as well continue my narrative to the close. Marzetti's foal couldn't travel, and had to be killed at Bagot's Creek. On Friday, the 8th November, the party, now silent, still moved under my directions. We tra- velled over the same ground that Mr. Carmichael and I had formerly done, until we reached the Petermann in the Levi Range. The natives and their pups had departed. The hills approached this creek so close as to form a valley ; there were several water-holes in the creek ; we followed its course as far as the valley existed. When the country opened, the creek spread out, and the water ceased to appear in its bed. We kept moving all day ; towards evening I saw some gum-trees under some hills two or three miles southwards, and as some smoke appeared above the hills, I knew that natives must have been there lately, and that water might be got there. Accordingly, leaving Car- michael and Robinson to go on with the horses, I rode over, and found there was the channel of a small creek, which narrowed into a kind of glen the farther I penetrated. The grass was burning on all the hillsides, and as I went still farther up, I could hear the voices of the natives, and I felt pretty sure of finding water. I was, however, slightly anxious I20 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. as to what reception I should get. I soon saw a single native leisurely walking along in front of me with a guana in his hand, taking it home for supper. He carried several spears, a wommerah, and a shield, and had long curled locks hanging down his shoulders. My horse's nose nearly touched his back before he was aware of my presence, when, looking behind him, he gave a sudden start, held up his two hands, dropped his guana and his spears, uttered a tremendous yell as a warning to his tribe, and bounded up the rocks in front of us like a wallaby. I then passed under a eucalyptus-tree, in whose foliage two ancient warriors had hastily secreted themselves. I stopped a second and looked up at them, they also looked at me ; they presented a most ludicrous appearance. A little farther on there were several rows of wurleys, and I could perceive the men urging the women and children away, as they doubtless supposed many more white men were in company with me, never supposing I could possibly be alone. While the women and children were departing up the rocks, the men snatched up spears and other weapons, and followed the women slowly towards the rocks. The glen had here narrowed to a gorge, the rocks on either side being not more than eighty to a hundred feet high. It is no exaggeration to say that the summits of the rocks on either side of the elen were lined with natives ; they could almost touch me with their spears. I did not feel quite at home in this charming retreat, although I was the cynosure of a myriad eyes. The natives stood upon the edge of the rocks like statues, some pointing their spears menacingly towards me, and I certainly AN UNENVIABLE SITUATION. 121 expected that some dozens would be thrown at me. Both parties seemed paralysed by the appearance of the other. I scarcely knew what to do ; I knew if I turned to retreat that every spear would be launched at me. I was, metaphorically, transfixed to the spot. I thought the only thing- to do was to brave the situation out, as " Cowards, 'tis said, in certain situations Derive a sort of courage from despair ; And then perform, from downright desperation, Much bolder deeds than many a braver man would dare." I was choking with thirst, though in vain I looked for a sheet of water ; but seeing where they had dug out some sand, I advanced to one or two wells in which I could see water, but without a shovel only a native could get any out of such a funnel-shaped hole. In sheer desperation I dis- mounted and picked up a small wooden utensil from one of the wurleys, thinking if I could only get a drink I should summon up pluck for the last despe- rate plunge. I could only manage to get up a few mouthfuls of dirty water, and my horse was trying to get in on top of me. So far as I could see, there were only two or three of these places where all those natives got water. I remounted my horse, one of the best and fastest I have. He knew exactly what I wanted because he wished it also, and that was to be gone. I mounted slowly with my face to the enemy, but the instant I was on he sprang round and was away with a bound that almost left me behind ; then such demoniacal yells greeted my ears as I had never heard before and do not wish to hear again ; the echoes of the voices of these now indifrnant and infuriated creatures rever- 122 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. berating through the defiles of the hills, and the uncouth sounds of the voices themselves smote so discordantly on my own and my horse's ears that we went out of that glen faster, oh ! ever so much faster, than we went in. I heard a horrid sound of spears, sticks, and other weapons, striking violently upon the ground behind me, but I did not stop to pick up any of them, or even to look round to see what caused it. Upon rejoining my companions, as we ESCAPE GLEN. — THE ADVANCE. now seldom spoke to one another, I merely told them I had seen water and natives, but that it was hardly worth while to go back to the place, but that they could go if they liked. Robinson asked me why I had ridden my horse West Australian — shortened toW. A., but usually called Guts, from his persistent attention to his " inwards "—so hard when there seemed no likelihoods of our getting any water for the night .^ I said, " Ride him back ESCAPE GLEN. 123 and see." I called this place Escape Glen. In two or three miles after I overtook them, the Peter- mann became exhausted on the plains. We pushed on nearly east, as now we must strike the Finke in forty-five to fifty miles ; but we had to camp that night without water. The lame horses went better the farther they were driven. I hoped to travel the lameness out of them, as instances of that kind have occurred with me more than once. We were away ESCAPE GLEN. — THE RETREAT. from our dry camp early, and had scarcely pro- ceeded two miles when we struck the bank of a broad sandy-bedded creek, which was almost as broad as the Finke itself: just where we struck it was on top of a red bank twenty or thirty feet high. The horses naturally looking down into the bed below, one steady old file of a horse, that carried my boxes with the instruments, papers, quicksilver, &c., went too close, the bank crumbled under him, and 124 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. down he fell, raising a cloud of red dust, I rode up immediately, expecting to see a fine smash, but no, there he was, walking along on the sandy bed below, as comfortable as he had been on top, not a strap strained or a box shifted in the least. The bed here was dry. Robinson rode on ahead and shortly found two fine large ponds under a hill which ended abruptly over them. On our side a few low ridges ran to meet it, thus forming a kind of pass. Here we outspanned ; it was a splendid place. Carmichael and Robinson caught a great quantity of fish with hook and line. I called these Middleton's Pass and Fish Ponds. The country all round was open, grassy, and fit for stock. The next day we got plenty more fish ; they were a species of perch, the largest one caught weighed, I dare say, three pounds ; they had a great resem- blance to Murray cod, which is a species of perch. I saw from the hill overhano-ino- the water that the creek trended south-east. Going in that direction we did not, however, meet it ; so turning more easterly, we sighted some pointed hills, and found the creek went between them, forming another pass, where there was another water-hole under the rocks. This, no doubt, had been of large dimensions, but was now gradually getting filled with sand ; there was, however, a considerable quantity of water, and it was literally alive with fish, insomuch that the water had a disagreeable and fishy taste. Great numbers of the dead fish were floating upon the water. Here we met a considerable number of natives, and although the women would not come close, several of the men did, and made themselves useful by holding some of the horses' bridles and FRIENDLY NA TIVES. 1 2 5 eettinof firewood. Most of them had names oriven them by their godfathers at their baptism, that is to say, either by the officers or men of the Overland Telegraph Construction parties. This was my thirty- second camp ; I called it Rogers's Pass ; twenty-two miles was our day's stage. From here two con- spicuous semi-conical hills, or as I should say, truncated cones, of almost identical appearance, caught my attention ; they bore nearly south 60° east. Bidding adieu to our sable friends, who had had breakfast with us and again made themselves useful, we started for the twins. To the south of them was a range of some length ; of this the twins formed a part. I called it Seymour's Range, and a conic hill at its western end Mount Ormerod. We passed the twins in eleven miles, and found some water in the creek near a peculiar red sandstone hill. Mount Quin ; the general course of the creek was south 70° east. Seymour's Range, together with Mounts Quin and Ormerod, had a series of watermarks in horizontal lines alone their face, similar to Johnston's Range, seen when first starting, the two ranges lying east and west of one another ; the latter-named range we were again rapidly approaching. Not far from Mount Quin I found some clay water-holes in a lateral channel. The creek- now ran nearly east, and having taken my latitude this morning by Aldeberan, I was sure of what I anticipated, namely, that I was running down the creek I had called No. 2. It was one that joined the Finke at my outgoing No. 2 camp. We found a water-hole to-day, fenced in by the natives. There was a low range to the south-west, 126 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. and a tent-shaped hill more easterly. We rested the horses at the fenced-in water-hole. I walked to the top of the tent hill, and saw the creek went through another pass to the north-east. In the afternoon I rode over to this pass and found some ponds of water on this side of it. A bullock whose tracks I had seen further up the creek had got bogged here. We next travelled through the pass, which I called Briscoe's Pass, the creek now turn- ing up nearly north-east ; in six miles further it ran JUNCTION OF THE PALMJtK. A.Nu TllE FINKii. under a hill, which I well remembered in going out ; at thirteen miles from the camp it ended in the broader bosom of the Finke, where there was a fine water-hole at the junction, in the bed of the smaller creek, which was called the Palmer. The Finke now appeared very different to when we passed up. It then had a stream of water running along its channel, but was now almost dry, except that water appeared at intervals upon the surface of the white and sandy bed, which, however, was generally EXPEDITION ENDED. 127 either salty or bitter ; others, again, were drinkable enough. Upon reaching the river we camped. My expedition was over. I had failed certainly in my object, which was to penetrate to the sources of the Murchison River, but not through any fault of mine, as I think any impartial reader will admit. Our outgoing tracks were very indistinct, but yet recognisable; we camped again at No. r. Our next line was nearly east, along the course of the Finke, passing a few miles south of Chambers's Pillar. I had left it but twelve weeks and four days ; during that interval I had traversed and laid down over a thousand miles of previously totally unknown country. Had I been fortunate enough to have fallen upon a good or even a fair line of country, the distance I actually travelled w^ould have taken me across the continent. I may here make a few remarks upon the Finke. It is usually called a river, although its water does not always show upon the surface. Overlanders, i.e. parties travelling up or down the road along the South Australian Trans-Continental Telegraph line, where the water does show on the surface, call them springs. The water is always running underneath the sand, but in certain places it becomes impreg- nated with mineral and salty formations, which gives the water a disagreeable taste. This peculiar drain no doubt rises in the western portions of the McDonnell Range, not far from where I traced it to, and runs for over 500 miles straight in a general south-westerly direction, finally entering the northern end of Lake Eyre. It drains an enormous area of Central South Australia, and on the parallels of 24°, 25°, 26'^ of south latitude, no other stream 128 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. exists between it and the Murchison or the Asbur- ton, a distance in either case of nearly i,ioo miles, and thus it will be seen it is the only Central Australian river. On the 2 1 St of November we reached the tele- graph line at the junction of the Finke and the Hugh. The weather during this month, and almost to its close, was much cooler than the preceding one. The horses were divided between us — Robinson getting six, Carmichael four, and I five. Carmichael and Robinson went down the country, in company, in advance of me, as fast as they could. I travelled more slowly by myself. One night, when near what is called the Horse-shoe bend of the Finke, I had turned out my horses, and as it seemed inclined to rain, was erecting a small tent, and on looking round for the tomahawk to drive a stake into the ground, was surprised to notice a very handsome little black boy, about nine or ten years old, quite close to me. I patted him on the head, whereupon he smiled very sweetly, and began to talk most fluently in his own language. I found he interspersed his remarks frequently with the words Larapinta, white fellow, and yarraman (horses). He told me two white men, Carmichael and Robinson, and ten horses, had ofone down, and that white fellows, with horses and camel drays (Gosse's expedition), had just gone up the line. While we were talking, two smaller boys came up and were patted, and patted me in return. The water on the surface here was bitter, and I had not been able to find any good, but these little imps of iniquity took my tin billy, scratched a hole in the sand, and immediately procured delicious water ; so I got them to help to water the horses. A BLA CK FA MIL Y. 129 I asked the elder boy, whom I christened Tommy, if he would come along with me and the yarramans ; of these they seemed very fond, as they began kissing while helping to water them. Tommy then found a word or two of English, and said, " You master ? " The natives always like to know who they are dealing with, whether a person is a master or a servant. I replied, " Yes, mine master." He then said, " Mine (him) ridem yarraman." " Oh, yes." " Which one ? " " That one," said I, pointing to old Cocky, and said, " That's Cocky." Then the boy went up to the horse, and said, "Cocky, you ridem me?" Turning to me, he said, " All right, master, you and me Burr-r-r-r-r." I was very well pleased to think I should get such a nice little fellow so easily. It was now near evening, and knowing that these youngsters couldn't possibly be very far from their fathers or mothers, I asked, " Where black fellow ? " Tommy said, quite nonchalantly, " Black fellow come up ! " and presently I heard voices, and saw a whole host of men, women, and children. Then these three boys set up a long squeaky harangue to the others, and three or four men and five or six boys came running up to me. One was a middle-aged, good-looking man ; with him were two boys, and Tommy gave me to understand that these were his father and brothers. The father drew Tommy towards him, and ranged his three boys in a row, and when I looked at them, it was impossible to doubt their relationship — they were all three so wonderfully alike. Dozens more men, boys, and women came round — some of the girls being exceedingly pretty. To feed so large a host, would have required all my VOL. 1. Iv I30 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. horses as well as my stock of rations, so I singled out Tommy, his two brothers, and the other original little two, at the same time, giving Tommy's father about half a damper I had already cooked, and told him that Tommy was my boy. He shook his head slowly, and would not accept the damper, walking somewhat sorrowfully away. However, I sent it to him by Tommy, and told him to tell his father he was going with me and the horses. The damper was taken that time. It did not rain, and the five youngsters all slept near me, while the tribe encamped a hundred yards away. I was not quite sure whether to expect an attack from such a number of natives. I did not feel quite at ease ; though these were, so to say, civilised people, they were known to be great thieves ; and I never went out of sight of my belongings, as in many cases the more civilised they are, the more villainous they may be. In the morning Tommy's father seemed to have thought better of my proposal, thinking probably it was a good thing for one of his boys to have a white master. I may say nearly all the civilised youngsters, and a good many old ones too, like to get work, regular rations, and tobacco, from the cattle or telegraph stations, which of course do employ a good many. When one of these is tired of his work, he has to bring up a substitute and inform his employer, and thus a continual change goes on. The boys brought up the horses, and breakfast being eaten, the father led Tommy up to me and put his little hand in mine ; at the same time giving me a small piece of stick, and pre- tending to thrash him ; represented to me that, if he didn't behave himself, I was to thrash him. I A BROKEN ARM. 131 gave the old fellow some old clothes (Tommy I had already dressed up), also some flour, tea, and sugar, and lifted the child on to old Cocky's saddle, which had a valise in front, with two straps for the monkey to cling on by. A dozen or two youngsters now also wanted to come on foot. I pretended to be very angry, and Tommy must have said something that induced them to remain. I led the horse the boy was riding, and had to drive the other three in front of me. When we departed, the natives gave us some howls or cheers, and finally we got out of their reach. The boy seemed quite delighted with his new situation, and talked away at a great rate. As soon as we reached the road, by some extra- ordinary chance, all my stock of wax matches, carried by Badger, caught alight ; a perfect volcano ensued, and the novel sight of a pack-horse on fire occurred. This sent him mad, and away he and the two other pack-horses flew down the road, over the sandhills, and were out of sight in no time. I told the boy to cling on as I started to gallop after them. He did so for a bit, but slipping on one side. Cocky gave a buck, and sent Tommy flying into some stumps of timber cut down for the passage of the telegraph line, and the boy fell on a stump and broke his arm near the shoulder. I tied my horse up and went to help the child, who screamed and bit at me, and said something about his people killing me. Every time I tried to touch or pacify him it was the same. I did not know what to do, the horses were miles away. I decided to leave the boy where he was, go after the horses, and then return with them to my last night's camp, and give the boy back to his father. When he saw K 2 132 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. me mount, he howled and yelled, but I gave him to understand what I was going to do, and he lay- down and cried. I was full of pity for the poor little creature, and I only left him to return. I started away, and not until I had been at full gallop for an hour did I sight the runaway horses. Cocky got away when the accident occurred, and galloped after and found the others, and his advent evidently set them off a second time. Returning to the boy, I saw some smoke, and on approaching close, found a young black fellow also there. He had bound up the child's arm with leaves, and wrapped it up with bits of bark ; and when I came he damped it with water from my bag. I then suggested to these two to return ; but oh no, the new chap was evidently bound to seek his fortune in London — that is to say, at the Charlotte Waters Station — and he merely remarked, "You, mine, boy, Burr-r-r-r-r, white fellow wurley ; " he also said, " Mine, boy, walk, you, yarraman — mine, boy, sleep you wurley, you Burr-r-r-r-r yarraman." All this meant that they would walk and I might ride, and that they would camp with me at night. Off I went and left them, as I had a good way to go. I rode and they walked to the Charlotte. I got the little boy regular meals at the station ; but his arm was still bad, and I don't know if it ever got right. I never saw him again. At the Charlotte Waters I met Colonel Warburton and his son ; they were going into the regions I had just returned from. I gave them all the information they asked, and showed them my map ; but they and Gosse's expedition went further up the Mine to the Alice springs, in the McDonnell Ranges, Tor a starting-point. I was very kindly received here THE CHARLOTTE. 133 again, and remained a few days. My old horse Cocky had got bad again, in consequence of his galloping with the pack-horses, and I left him behind me at the Charlotte, in charge of Mr. Johnston. On arrival at the Peake, I found that Mr. Bagot had broken his collar-bone by a fall from a horse. I drove him to the Blinman Mine, where we took the coach for Adelaide. At Beltana, before we reached the Blinman Mine, I heard that my former black boy Dick was in that neighbourhood, and Mr. Chandler, whom I had met at the Charlotte Waters, and who was now stationed here, promised to get and keep him for me until I either came or sent for him : this he did. And thus ends the first book of my explorations. BOOK II. Ma|)N°2. 128 134 135 iM^Barlee lAUCElSPRINCS ^_J TELEG^IAPH STATION ^^'•''ouse/R /'.5WaU«r,A«i. ( 137 ) NOTE TO THE SECOND EXPEDITION. In a former part of my narrative I mentioned, that so soon as I had informed my kind friend Baron von Mueller by wire from the Charlotte Waters Telegraph Station, of the failure and break up of my expedition, he set to work and obtained a new fund for me to continue my labours. Although the greatest despatch was used, and the money quickly obtained, yet it required some months before I could again depart. I reached Adelaide late in January, 1873, and as soon as funds were available I set to work at the organisa- tion of a new expedition. I obtained the services of a young friend named William Henry Tietkins — who came over from Melbourne to join me — and we got a young fellow named James Andrews, or Jimmy as we always called him. I bought a light four-wheeled trap and several horses, and we left Adelaide early in March, 1873. We drove up the country by way of the Burra mines to Port Augusta at the head of Spencer's Gulf, buying horses as we went ; and having some pack saddles on the wagon, these we put on our new purchases as we got them. Before I left Adelaide I had instructed Messrs. 138 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. Tassie & Co., of Port Augusta, to forward certain stores required for our journey, which loading had already been despatched by teams to the Peake. We made a leisurely journey up the country, as it was of no use to overtake our stores. At Beltana Mr. Chandler had got and kept my black boy Dick, who pretended to be overjoyed to see me, and perhaps he really was ; but he was extra effusive in his affection, and now declared he had been a silly young fool, that he didn't care for wild blacks now a bit, and would go with me anywhere. When Mr. Chandler got him he was half starved, living in a blacks' camp, and had scarcely any clothes. Leav- ing Beltana, in a few days we passed the Finniss Springs Station, and one of the people there made all sorts of overtures to Dick, who was now dressed in good clothes, and having had some good living lately, had got into pretty good condition ; some promises must have been made him, as when we reached the Gregory, he bolted away, and I never saw him afterwards. The Gregory was now running, and by simply dipping out a bucketful of water, several dozens of minnows could be caught. In this way we got plenty of them, and frying them in butter, just as they were, they proved the most delicious food it was possible to eat, equal, if not superior, to white- bait. Nothing of a very interesting nature occurred during our journey up to the Peake, where we were welcomed by the Messrs. Bagot at the Cattle Station, and Mr. Blood of the Telegraph Department. Here we fixed up all our packs, sold Mr. Bagot the wagon, and bought horses and other things ; we had now twenty pack-horses and four riding ditto. ALF GIBSON. 139 Here a short young man accosted me, and asked me if I did not remember him, saying at the same time that he was " Alf." I fancied I knew his face, but thought it was at the Peake that I had seen him, but he said, " Oh no, don't you remember Alf with Bagot's sheep at the north-west bend of the Murray ? my name's Alf Gibson, and I want to go out with you." I said, " Well, can you shoe ? can you ride ? can you starve ? can you go without water ? and how would you like to be speared by the blacks outside ? " He said he could do everything I had mentioned, and he wasn't afraid of the blacks. He was not a man I would have picked out of a mob, but men were scarce, and as he seemed so anxious to come, and as I wanted somebody, I agreed to take him. We got all our horses shod, and two extra sets of shoes fitted for each, marked, and packed away. I had a little black-and-tan terrier dog called Cocky, and Gibson had a little pup of the same breed, which he was so anxious to take that at last I permitted him to do so. Our horses' loads were very heavy at starting, the greater number of the horses carrying 200 lbs. The animals were not in very good condition ; I got the horse I had formerly left here, Badger, the one whose pack had been on fire at the end of my last trip. I had decided to make a start upon this expedition from a place known as Ross's Water-hole in the Alberga Creek, at its junction with the Stevenson, the Alberga being one of the principal tributaries of the Finke. The position of Ross's Water-hole is in latitude 27° 8' and longitude 135° 45', it lying 120 to 130 miles in latitude more to the south than the Mount Olga of my first I40 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. journey, which was a point I was most desirous to reach. Having tried without success to reach it from the north, I now intended to try from a more southerly Hne. Ross's Water-hole is called ninety miles from the Peake, and we arrived there without any difficulty. The nights now were exceedingly cold, as it was near the end of July. When we arrived I left the others in camp and rode myself to the Charlotte Waters, expecting to get my old horse Cocky, and load him with 200 lbs. of flour ; but when I arrived there, the creek water-hole was dry, and all the horses running loose on the Finke. I got two black boys to go out and try to get the horse, but on foot in the first place they could never have done it, and in the second place, when they returned, they said they could not find him at all. I sent others, but to no purpose, and eventually had to leave the place without getting him, and returned empty-handed to the depot, having had my journey and lost my time for nothing. There was but poor feed at the water-hole, every teamster and traveller always camping there. Some few natives appeared at the camp, and brought some boys and girls. An old man said he could get me a flour-bag full of salt up the creek, so I despatched him for it ; he brought back a little bit of dirty salty gravel in one hand, and expected a lot of flour, tea, sugar, meat, tobacco, and clothes for it ; but I considered my future probable require- ments, and refrained from too much generosity. A nice little boy called Albert agreed to come with us, but the old man would not allow him — I suppose on account of the poor reward he got for his salt. A young black fellow here said he had found a A WHITE MAN'S MUSKET. 141 white man's musket a lon(^ way up the creek, and that he had got it in his wurley, and would give it to me for flour, tea, sugar, tobacco, matches, and clothes. I only promised flour, and away he went to get the weapon. Next day he returned, and before reaching the camp began to yell, "White fellow mukkety, white fellow mukkety." I could see he had no such thing in his hands, but when he arrived he unfolded a piece of dirty old pocket- handkerchief, from which he produced — what ? an old discharged copper revolver cartridge. His reward was commensurate with his prize. The expedition consisted of four members — namely, myself, Mr. William Henry Tietkins, Alfred Gibson, and James Andrews, with twenty-four horses and two little dogs. On Friday, the ist of August, 1873, we were prepared to start, but rain stopped us ; again on Sunday some more fell. We finally left the encampment on the morning of Monday, the 4th. i /BOSS'S WATER-HOLE. 143 CHAPTER I. FROM THE 4TH TO THE 2 2ND AUGUST, 1 873. Leave for the west — Ascend the Alberga — An old building — Rain, thunder, and lightning — Leave Alberga for the north- west — Drenched in the night — Two lords of the soil — Get their conge — Water-holes — Pretty amphitheatre — Scrubs on either side — Watering the horses — A row of saplings — Spinifex and poplars — Dig a tank — Hot wind — A broken limb — Higher hills — ■ Flat-topped hills — Singular cones — Better country — A horse staked — Bluff-faced hills — • The Anthony Range — Cool nights — Tent-shaped hills — Fantastic mounds — Romantic valley — Picturesque scene — A gum creek — Beautiful country — Gusts of fragrance — New and independent hills — Large creek — Native well — Jimmy's report — The Krichauff — Cold nights — Shooting blacks — Labor omnia vincit — Thermometer 28° — Dense scrubs — Small creek — Native pheasant's nest — Beautiful open ground —Charming view — Rocks piled on rocks. On Monday, the 4th August, 1873, my new expe- dition, under very favourable circumstances, started from Ross's Water-hole in the Albero^a. The country through which the Alberga here runs is mostly open and stony, but good country for stock of all kinds. The road and the telegraph line are here thirteen miles apart. At that distance up the creek, nearly west, we reached it. The frame of an old building was convenient for turning into a house, with a tarpaulin for a roof, as there appeared a like- 144 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. lihoods of more rain. Some water was got in a clay-pan in the neighbourhood. A misty and cloudy morning warned us to keep under canvas : rain fell at intervals during the day, and at sundown heavy thunder and bright lightning came from the north-west, with a closing good smart shower. The next morning was fine and clear, though the night had been extremely cold. The bed of this creek proved broad but ill-defined, and cut up into numerous channels. Farther along the creek a more scrubby region was found ; the soil was soft after the rain, but no water was seen lying about. The creek seemed to be getting smaller ; I did not like its appearance very much, so struck away north-west. The country now was all thick mulga scrub and grassy sandhills ; amongst these we found a clay-pan with some water in it. At night we were still in the scrub, without water, but we were not destined to leave it without any, for at ten o'clock a thunderstorm from the north- west came up, and before we could get half our things under canvas, we were thoroughly drenched. Off our tarpa^'llns we obtained plenty of water for breakfast ; but the ground would not retain any. Sixteen miles farther along we came down out of the sandhills on to a creek where we found water, and camped, but the grass was very poor, dry, and innutrltlous. More rain threatened, but the night was dry, and the morning clear and beautiful. This creek was the Hamilton. Two of its native lords visited the camp this morning, and did not appear at all Inclined to leave it. The creek is here broad and sandy : the timber is small and stunted. To- wards evening the two Hamiltonlans put on airs of A PRETTY A MFinrffEATRIi. 145 great im[)udcnce, and became very objectionable ; two or three times I had to resist their encroach- ments into the ' camp, and at last they <^reatly annoyed me. I couldn't quite make out what they said to one another ; but I gathered they expected more of their tr;be, and were anxiously looking out for them in all directions. Finally, as our guns wanted discharging and cleaning after the late showers, we fired them off, and so soon as the natives saw us first handle and then dischars^e them, off they went, and returned to Balclutha no more. Going farther up the creek, we met some small tributaries with fine little water-holes. Some ridees now approached the creek ; from the top of one many sheets of water glittered in stony clay-pans. More westerly the creek ran under a hill. Crossing another tributary where there was plenty of water, we next saw a large clay-hole in the main creek — it was, however, dry. When there was some water in it, the natives had fenced it round to catch any large game that might come to drink ; at present they were saved the trouble, for game and water had both alike departed Mr. Tietkrns, my lieu- tenant and second in command, found a very pretty amphitheatre formed by the hills ; we encamped there, at some clay-pans ; the grass, however, was very poor ; scrubs appeared on the other side of the creek. A junction with another creek occurred near here, beyond which the channel was broad, flat, sandy, and covered indiscriminately with timber ; scrubs existed on either bank. We had to cross and recross the bed as the best road. We found a place in it where the natives had dug, and where we got water, but the supply was very unsatis- VOL. I. L 146 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. factory, an enormous quantity of sand having to be shifted before the most wilHng horse could get down to it. We succeeded at length with the aid of canvas buckets, and by the time the whole twenty- four were satisfied, we were also. The grass was dry as usual, but the horses ate it, probably because there is no other for them. Our course to-day was 8° south of west. Close to where we encamped were three or four saplings placed in a row in the bed of the creek, and a diminutive tent-frame, as though some one, if not done by native children, had been playing at erecting a miniature telegraph line. I did not like this creek much more than the Alberga, and decided to try the country still farther north-west. This we did, passing through some- what thick scrubs for eighteen miles, when we came full upon the creek again, and here for the first time since we started we noticed some bunches of spinifex, the Festuca irritans, and some native poplar trees. These have a straight stem, and are in out- line somewhat like a pine-tree, but the foliage is of a fainter green, and different-shaped leaf. They are very pretty to the eye, but generally inhabit the very poorest regions ; the botanical name of this tree is Codonocarpus cotinifolius. At five miles farther we dug in the bed of the creek, but only our riding-horses could be watered by night. White pipeclay existed on the bed. The weather was oppressive to-day. Here my latitude was 26° 27', longitude 134°. It took all next day to water the horses. Thermometer 92° in shade, hot wind Ijlowing. The dead limb of a tree, to which we fixed our tarpaulin as an awning for shade, slii)ped down while we were at dinner ; it first fell on tlie A DEAD LIMB. 147 head of Jimmy Andrews, which broke it in lialf; it also fell across my back, tearing my waistcoat, shirt, and skin ; but as it only fell on Jimmy's head, of course it couldn't hurt him. The country a .J. — _ ^ ^^^^^ ^ /?«^^>r AN INCIDENT Of TK.AVliL. still scrubby on both sides : we now travelled about north-north-west, and reached a low stony rise In the scrubs, and from it saw the creek stretching away towards some other ridges nearly on the line we were travelling. We skirted the creek, and in L 2 148 AUSTRALIA TWICE TRAVERSED. eleven miles we saw other hills of greater elevation than any we had yet seen. Reaching the first ridge, we got water by digging a few inches into the pipeclay bed of the creek ; a more extended view was here obtained, and ranges appeared from west, round by north-west, to north ; there were many flat-topped hills and several singu- lar cones, and the country appeared more open. I was much pleased to think I had distanced the scrubs. One cone in the new range bore north 52° west, and for some distance the creek trended that way. On reaching the foot of the new hills, I found the creek had greatly altered its appearance, if indeed it was the same. It is possible the main creek may have turned more to the west, and that this is only a tributary, but as we found some sur- face water in a clay-hole, we liked it better than havin