Part 7 (1/2)

CHAPTER XVII

MR ERNEST GILE'S EXPLORATIONS IN CENTRAL AND WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Mr Ernest Giles is a native of Bristol, in England As soon as his education was finished he rejoined his father and family, who had preceded him to Australia He very early developed a passion for exploration, and gained valuable experience in connection with various expeditions which he served in a subordinate capacity His own fa enterprises:--

I

Shortly after the construction of the Port Darwin telegraph, Mr Gilesattempt to lead a small party from Chambers's Pillar to the sources of the Murchison River The expenses were provided partly by himself and partly by Baron Von Mueller, of Melbourne The party consisted of Messrs Giles, Car The start was ust, 1872

For the early part of the journey the River Finke was followed, but it led the was difficult The scenery was often charlen after another was explored Pal admiration on account of the multitude of wild flohich were ”born to blush unseen and waste their sweetness on the desert air” ”I collected to-day,” says Mr Giles, ”and during the other days since we have been in this glen, a nurow in profusion in this otherwise desolate glen I a hue Why Nature should scatter such floral geion is difficult to understand; but such a variety of lovely flowers of every colour and perfume I have never met with previously They alone would have inducedfound in it also so many of the stately pal a further advance aes, the Finke was left, or lost, and laborious search had often to be h, but no creek was found with a longer course than twelve e and fantastic shapes, as the explorers have indicated by such na quotation from the journal sho they were straitened at this ti a little in the hollow of a rock, just sufficient to save life, Mr Giles says:--”It was necessary to try to discover more water if possible, so, after breakfast, I walked away, but, after travelling up gullies and gorges, hills and valleys, I had to return quite unsuccessful, and I can only conclude that this water was permitted by a kind Providence to remain here in this lovely spot for ratitude, called it Mount Udor, as being the only one in this region where a drop of that requisite element was to be obtained And when I left the udor had departed also” This incident occurred at the twenty-first ca, but unsuccessful, effort was made to strike out west in the direction of a chain naain forced the party back on Mount Udor A reat saltwater lake, which was called A of Spain, son of Victor E, but comparatively narrow, sheet of water, a conspicuous a, specially attracted the attention of Mr Giles, as anxious to reach it by rounding the lake But this labour was prevented by an incident which, unhappily, caused the purpose of the expedition to collapse Robinson had been seized with homesickness, and the infection reached Carmichael, who obstinately refused to proceed any further

Giles tried the effect of moral suasion, which was the only weapon available for a volunteer He pleaded the large supply of provisions, the i back But it was to no purpose Caruments Giles was now coraph line, ”a baffled and beaten lorious retreat the course lay by the Peterman, the Palinal camp No 1 was reached Here is the conclusion of the whole matter in Mr Giles's oords:--”My expedition was over I had failed in my object (to penetrate to the sources of the Murchison River) certainly, but not through any fault of mine, as I think any impartial reader ofthe course of the River Finke (homeward), and passed a few miles to the south of Cha-point I had left it but twelve weeks and four days to the ti that interval I had traversed and laid down about a thousand miles of country My expedition thus early ends Had I been fortunate enough to have fallen upon a good, or even fair, line of country, the distance I actually travelled would have taken me across the continent”

II

A second attempt was made by the same explorer shortly after his return fro provided by the liberality of the Victorian colonists, a light party, consisting of Messrs Giles, Tietkens, Gibson, and Andreith twenty-four horses, were despatched for the purpose of crossing the western half of Australia They left the telegraph road at the junction of the Stevenson and Alberga creeks on the 4th of August, 1873 The latter was followed for some distance ard, after which, by a short cross-country route to the north, the Hauide so far as was practicable This journey led to the discovery of four remarkable e From one of the summits they beheld a sea of mountains, countless in number, many of which presented the ination can conceive Ayer's Range was next reached, and an equally cohts The next was the Musgrave Range, occupying a central position in a far-reaching expanse of good country Here the natives were encountered in a hostile attitude, but were beaten off by the superior arms of four white a, which had been sighted on the forhbourhood also, they found the tracks of Mr Gosse, a contemporary explorer, which led to a deviation froe a depot was established, as a basis for tentative explorations in a forbidding tract of country About 110 miles from this centre theyforth aaround a plentiful shower of spray This gladdening apparition in the desert received the nahbourhood was also well grassed This place has doubtless a future in store for it Turning more to the north, in the direction of a broken country, another splendid range, named the Rawlinson, was discovered It extended to 60 th, with a breadth of five or six The peaks were reed

From this position an attempt was made to strike out in a north-westerly direction, but bad fortune compelled them to return after Mt

Destruction had been reached Four of the horses had been lost in a journey of ninety miles; water was not to be found; the natives were troubleso ahead but spinifex desert and rolling sand-hills A return to the Rawlinson Range was, therefore, iain rested for a little, another detere due west across the interior and strike the outposts of settlement in Western Australia All was done that man could do, but impossibilities are not to be accoe faded away into a barren and waterless desert

Giles and Gibson had, as a gigantic effort of perseverance, penetrated 98 miles into this inhospitable waste But no further could they go

Here, on the 23rd of April, the utmost bourne of the expedition was reached One of the two horses here knocked up and died This was the last ti him help, but he was never found His bones lie somewhere in that ailderness, which to this day bears his name When the furthest point was reached better fortune seee of lofty mountains was descried athwart the western horizon, which he called the Alfred and Marie, after the Duke and duchess of Edinburgh They ht as well have been in the moon so far as Mr Giles was concerned in his now pitiable plight His own reflections were deplorably bitter:--”The hills bounding the western horizon were between thirty and forty ret that I was compelled to relinquish a further atteed for a caazed upon the scene! At this moment I would even ulf that lay between

But it could not be; situated as I was, I was compelled to retreat, and the sooner the better” Such was his destiny After als in the wilderness, three of the four explorers escaped with their lives, and reached the central telegraph line on the 13th of July