Part 14 (1/2)
CHAPTER IX
FLOOD'S QUICK SIGHT--FOREST FULL OF BIRDS--NATIVE WELL--BIRDS COLLECT TO DRINK--DANGEROUS PLAIN--FLOOD'S HORSE LOST--SCARCITY OF WATER--TURN NORTHWARD--DISCOVER A LARGE CREEK--BRIGHT PROSPECTS--SUDDEN DISAPPOINTMENT--SALT LAGOON--SCARCITY OF WATER--SALT WATER CREEK--CHARACTER OF THE INTERIOR--FORCED TO TURN BACK--RISK OF ADVANCING--THE FURTHEST NORTH--RETURN TO AND EXAMINATION OF THE CREEK--PROCEED TO THE WESTWARD--DREADFUL COUNTRY--JOURNEY TO THE NORTH--AGAIN FORCED TO RETURN--NATIVES--STATION ON THE CREEK--CONCLUDING REMARKS
Reflecting on the singular character of the country below e the party had just ascended, I could not but think how fortunate it e had not found it in a wet state, for in such a case to cross it would have been impossible I felt assured indeed, from the moment we set foot on it, that in the event of rain, while we should be in the ether impracticable, but we had neither tiainst, the consequences of any heavy fall that ht have set in I do not think that this flashed across theevery probable chance of difficulty or success
As the line of the sand ridges was nearly parallel to that of our course, we descended to a polygonue upon our left, proceeded on a bearing of 342 degrees, or on a NNW course, up a kind of valley Whilst thus riding leisurely along, Flood, whose eyes were always about hi in the bushes, to which he called our attention It was a dark object, and was then perfectly stationary; as Flood however insisted that he saw it move, Mr Broent forward to ascertain what it could be, when a native woman jue trough before her, the more effectually to conceal her person, and ht in discovering her We were reat alar to some distance she turned round to look at us, and then walked off at a more leisurely pace At the distance of about four ed to cross over to the opposite side to preserve our course On gaining the top of the ridge,an open box-tree forest, and a sst the trees, towards which we silently bent our steps Our approach had however been noticed by the natives, who no doubt were at the place not a h the forest, the ground beneath our horses' feet being destitute of vegetation, and the soil composed of a whitish clay, so peculiar to the flooded lands of the interior The farther we entered the depths of the forest, the more did the notes of birds assail our ears cockatoos, parrots, calodera, pigeons, crows, etc, allwith their wild notes, and as (with the exception of the ducks on the southern side of the Stony Desert) we had not seen any of the feathered race for many days, ere now astonished at their numbers and variety About an hour before sunset we arrived on the banks of a large creek, with a bed of couch grass, but no water The appearance of this creek, however, was so pro before us, but rode on until sunset ere we arrived at a place which had attracted our attention as we approached it Soht, but in the bed of the creek, there were twoback on either side
Beneath these trees there was a large mound of earth, that appeared to have been thrown up On reaching the spot we discovered a well of very unusual diht
On a closer exareat value to the inhabitants It was 22 feet deep and 8 feet broad at the top There was a landing place, but no steps down to it, and a recess had been htly brackish, the ri also incrusted with salt Paths led from this spot to al one to the left, I ca of nineteen huts, but there were not any signs of recent occupation Troughs and stones for grinding seed were lying about, with broken spears and shi+elds, but it was evident that the inhabitants were now dispersed in other places, and only assehs of that tree were lying in heaps on the ground, and the trees the been stripped There were two or three huts in the village of large size, to each of which two s into its main apartment, but none of them had been left in such order as those I have already described
It being the hour of sunset e reached the well, the trees were croith birds of all kinds coe of the straits to which they were driven, when he learns that they dived down into so dark a cha element it contained The wildest birds of the forest were here obliged to yield to the wants of nature at any risk, but notwithstanding, they were exceedingly wary; and we shot only a few cockatoos The fact of there being so large a well at this point, (a work that must have required the united labour of a powerful tribe to complete), assured us that this distant part of the interior, however useless and forbidding to civilized man, was not without inhabitants, but at the same time it plainly indicated, that waterthat the birds of the forest had powers of flight to go where they would, I could not but regard it as a n, that so many had collected here Had this well contained a sufficiency of water, it would have been of the uth for our wants, so that, although I should gladly have halted for a day, as our horses were both ill and tired, necessity obliged ly on the 29th we resuinal course At about a h the forest, and entered an open earthy plain, such as I believe man never before crossed Subject to be laid under water by the creek we had just left, and to the effects of an almost vertical sun, its surface was absolutely so rent and torn by solar heat, that there was scarcely roo their hind feet into chasht to ten feet deep, into which the earth fell with a hollow rurave The poor horse in the cart had a sad task, and it surprised ot safely over the plain, which was between five and six ed it, and at that distance found ourselves on the banks of another creek, in the bed of which there was plenty of grass but no water I was however exceedingly anxious to give the horses a day's rest; for several of the that disagreed with theularity of food Mr Browne too was unwell and Lewis coe ourselves if possible I therefore deter water, and at a ladly halted, for by this tireat size, and were evidently inthe little bivouac our attention was turned to the horses, and Mr Browne found it necessary to bleed Flood's horse, to allay the inflaot worse, and no reood
The poor aniround, and bruised hied to fasten hi, at sunset he was allowed to be loose He reht, and was last seen close to where I was lying, but in the h we searched for a whole day, and et on his track we never saw him more, and concluded he had died under some bush This was the horse we recovered on the Murray, the saovernment paddock in Adelaide The other animals had in soot while ere searching for Flood's horse, enabled ust Our course being one of 335 degrees to the west of north, or nearly NNW, and that of the sandy ridges being 340 degrees we necessarily crossed theood deal In the afternoon we travelled over large bare plains, of a round absolutely yawning underneath us, perfectly destitute of vegetation, and denuded of ti here and there, where a stunted box-tree was to be seen While on the sand hills, the general covering of which was spinifex, there were a few hakea and low shrubs On such ground as that whereon ere travelling, it would have been hopeless to look for water, nevertheless our search was constant, but ere obliged to halt without having found any, and to make ourselves as comfortable as we could All the surface water left by the July rain had entirely disappeared, and what now remained even in the creeks wasbeverage, nor would boiling cause any great sedi, we passed some holes scooped out by the natives to catch rain, and in some of these there was still a muddy residuum; we moreover observed that the inhabitants of this desert made these holes in places the best adapted to their purpose, where if the slightest shower occurred, the water falling on hard clay would necessarily run into them
The circu of the 31st of August were very e It was evident that the country into which ere now advancing, was drier and more difficult than the country we had left behind It was iet on, if it should continue as we had found it thus far There were nues of sand to the ard, in addition to those on the plains, and so full of holes and chasms were the latter, that the horses would soon have been placed hors de combat, if they had continued to traverse thereat precaution our retreat would be infallibly cut off Whatever water we had passed, since thewe commenced our journey over the Stony Desert, was not to be depended upon for ht reckon with some certainty on the native well in the box-tree forest, the supply it had yielded was so very small that we could not expect to obtain more from it than would suffice ourselves and one or two of the horses Taking all theseto the north for a day or two, in order that by keeping along the flats, close under the ridges, Ifor the cart, and in the expectation, that we should bethe succession of ridges Accordingly, on the 1st of Septerees to the west of north, or a N 1/2 W course, that allowing for variation, being within 1 1/2 points of a due north course On this ent up the flat where we had slept By keeping close to the ridges we found, as I had anticipated, firh the centre of the flat was still of the worst description There were a few s, but scarcely any etation At about nine reen appearance of soonum bushes, to which ent, and under theht easily have passed They must have been three feet deep after the rains, but were now barely five inches, and about the size of a loo table However, we had no choice, and as the horse had suffered so much from the rickety round, and there was a silky kind of grass growing sparingly around, I stopped here for the rest of the day to effect necessary repairs When, however, we came to examine the wheels, we found that so many of the spokes were shi+vered and had shrunk, that Lewis got on but slowly, renewing only such as were found absolutely useless; ere consequently detained at this point another day, but on the 3rd resumed our journey up the flat, and at two e into the opposite flat, and at five ht for Lewis and Joseph, ere a good way behind with the cart On co up, they informed us that they had fallen in with a tribe of natives, twelve in nu, and had remained some time with them They were at a dirty puddle, such as we had left, and were at no great distance froave one of them his knife, but he could not understand a word they said
After crossing the sand ridge, we kept on the edge of the flats, as I have said, for the sake of the horses The ridges had now beco, and varied in breadth from a few hundred yards to a enerally bare, they were not altogether destitute of grass or herbage; the ridges of sand, on the contrary, still continued unbroken, and several were covered with spinifex; but on the whole the country appeared to be i decidedly somewhat to the eastward of south, or towards the Stony Desert, I entertained hopes that we had crossed the lowest part of the interior, and reached the southerly drainage We were again fortunate in co on another pond at 20an improved appearance Still our situation was very precarious, and ere risking a great deal by thus pushi+ng forward, for although I call the hollows (in which we found the water) ponds, they were strictly speaking the dregs only of what had been such, and were thick, black, and muddy; but the present aspect of the country led us to hope for a favourable change, and on theof the 4th we still held our northerly course up the flat, on which we had travelled the greater part of the day before As we advanced, it becarassy, and at three miles we found a small supply of very tolerable water in the bed of a shalloatercourse We had ridden about ten miles from the place where we had slept, and Mr Browne and I were talking together, when Flood, as some little distance a-head, held up his hat and called out to us We were quite sure fro unusual, and on riding up were astonished at finding ourselves on the banks of a beautiful creek, the bed of which was full both of water and grass The bank on our side enty feet high, and shelved too rapidly to ad the horses down, but the opposite bank was coe sheets of water around the , but nevertheless these ponds were exceedingly shallow The direction of this fine watercourse was N by W
and S by E, co to the last point, thus enabling us to trace it up without changing our own A little above where we intersected its channel two small tributaries join it, or, I ao fro as we came up the valley, but more especially as the direction from which they appeared to come (the SW), was al upwards we observed that there were considerable intervals, along which the channel of the creek was dry; but where such was the case, it was abundantly covered with couch grass, of which the horses were exceedingly fond We passed several sheets of water, however, soreater nu it for ten hter prospects, and under ht to anticipate; but, although the creek promised so well, the valley on either side of it was more than usually barren and scrubby, and was bounded in, as usual, by high ridges of sand, that still continued to head us in unbroken lines, and were thefeature of the interior; and although ere noithin two degrees of the Tropics, our latitude at this point being 25 degrees 34 htest change in the vegetation, or anything to intimate our approach to a tropical country
On the 5th we started on a course of 340 degrees, the upward course of the creek At two ain to NW, and afterwards kept a general course of 10 degrees to the west of north Its channel gradually contracted as we advanced, and the polygonue bush upon its banks At nine miles we arrived at a creek junction frorassy plains, on which so that it took its rise in a kind ofthe centre of the plain into which it had led us, we turned away to the main creek The country now became more open, and tertiary limestone shewed itself on the plains, and at a short distance from the creek a vein of milky quartz cropped out near a pretty sheet of water As we proceeded upwards sandstone traversed its bed in several places; in so its channel A short ti sheet of water, on which there were a good rew close to the banks of the creek, so as to favour our creeping upon the that the creek had thus changed its appearance fro rass in its channel), we had no reason to suppose that it would disappoint our hopes; we therefore resu of the 6th, without any idea that we should meet with any check in the course of the day As the ihbourhood of this creek had become scrubby, we kept wide of it and travelled for 12of 340, over flats destitute of all etation, but thinly scattered over with the box, acacia and the Bauhih sandy ridges, covered with spinifex, excepting on their summits, which were perfectly bare The view from them both to the eastward and as, as it were, over a sandy sea; ridge after ridge succeeding each other as far as the eye could stretch the vision To the north the flat appeared to terrees or NNW 1/2 W
When we again carass in its bed, but just above, the channel suddenly turned to the NE
and in again keeping wide of it to avoid the inequalities of the ground, we arrived at the little sand hill that had previously bounded our view, and on ascending it, found that immediately beneath us, there was a clear small lake, covered ild fowl The colour of the water i that it was too salt to drink An extensive grassy flat extended to the ard of the lake, bounded by box-trees, and the channel of the creek still held its course to the NE I could not therefore but suppose, that this was a junction fro to the opposite side, in anticipation that I should again coly crossed at the botto found ae tithered stalks of rassy woodland continued for several miles, and as it was evidently subject to flood, ere in e before us, as indicating the course of the creek, but we suddenly debouched upon open plains, bounded by distant sand hills There was not now a tree to be seen, but sa round about; as the changes however in this singular and anoion had been so sudden and instantaneous, I still held on my course, but the farther I advanced into the plains the round betray a salt formation
We halted an hour after sunset, under a sand hill about 16succeeded in our search for water, for although we passed several muddy pools at which the birds still continued to drink they were too thick for our animals
The prospect from the top of the sand hill under which we had formed our bivouac, was theof any that our eyes had wandered over, during this long and anxious journey To the west and north-west there were lines of heavy sand ridges, so steep and rugged as to deter me from any attempt to cross thereen plain covered with saoons, as white as snow, for for about eight ht red tops of which gleaht I was here really puzzled what course to pursue, one only indeed was open to me--the north--unless I should deterht it better to advance, in the hope of being able tofor a few days at the first favourable point at which we should arrive, for my mind was filled with anxiety It had painedh he continued to renderover him; he seldo or supporting his back, and he appeared unfit to ride Myto feel the effects of constant exposure, of ceaseless journeying, and of poverty of food, for all we had was 5 lbs of flour and 2 oz of tea per week; it is true we occasionally shot a pigeon or a duck, but the wildness of the birds of all kinds was perfectly unaccountable The horses living chiefly on pulpy vegetation had little sta much privation or hardshi+p No rain had fallen since July, nor was there any present indication of a change Much as I desired it, I yet dreaded having to traverse such a country as that into which I was now about to plunge, in a wet state With a soil of stiff tenacious clay, already soft from the moisture produced by the mixture of salt in it, I foresaw that in the event of heavy rain, I should be involved in almost inextricable difficulties, but there was no alternative
On theof the 7th I sent Mr Browne to the ard, to ascertain the nature of the country, and if by any chance he could again find the creek, and in case I had inadvertently mistaken the real creek for a tributary, Iit Mr Browne had not, however, been absent more than three-quarters of an hour, when he returned to infor direct from the north, the bed of which was too soft for him to cross He said that its channel hite as snow, and that every reed and blade of grass on its banks, was encrusted with salt Under an ihbourhood of, and on a course nearly parallel to this creek, I could not hope for any favourable change, I decided on crossing it, and with that view turned to the west; but finding the bed of the creek still too soft to ad a sandy ridge
As Mr Browne had infor white, and thickly encrusted with salt, nor was there any water visible, but on going down to examine it in several places where the salt had the appearance of broken and rotten ice, we found that there were deep pools of perfect brine underneath, on which the salt floated, to the thickness of three or four inches The marks of flood on the side of the sand hill shewed a rise of 12 feet above its ordinary level At about a mile and a half we descended the sand hill on which we had previously kept, and ascended another,the basin of the creek immediately below us, but quite dry, and surrounded by sand hills Crossing just below it, we proceeded on a course of 331 degrees over extensive plains, covered with saoons occurred The ground was spongy and soft, and the cart wheels consequently sank deep into it The plain was surrounded on all sides by sand hills, and that towards which ere advancing appeared to run athwart our course instead of nearly parallel to it as heretofore On gaining the sues extended fro the head of the respective valleys A line of acacia, a species we had never found near water, was growing down the centre of each, and the fall of the country see down one of the valleys, the descent of which was very gradual, and keeping on such clear ground as there was, the ridges rose higher and higher on either side of us as we advanced, all grass and other vegetation disappeared, and at length both valley and sand ridge became thickly coated with spinifex
At noon I halted, in the hope of obtaining a ht, the sky continuing obscured At half-past two I pulled up, to consider whether or not it would be prudent to push on any farther I calculated that ere now 34 e The horses had not tasted water from the early part of the day before, and we could not reasonably expect to get back to the salt lagoon under a day and a half Our poor anih by going on steadily we had round It is, however, probable that I should not have had much consideration for thehed on my mind and influenced my decision My men were all three unwell, and had been so for sos were such that I hesitated subjecting hied to submit to, and by which I felt assured he would ultimately be overcome The treacherous character of the disease by which he had been attacked ell understood I had no hope of any improvement in his condition until such tie of food So far froht be laid prostrate as Mr Poole had been, that I should have to carry him about in a state of helplessness, and that he would ultimately sink as his unfortunate companion had done Had other considerations, therefore, not influenced me, I could notcompanion perish at , I had al circumstances, for no one who has not seen the scurvy in its worst character can fored to lay and leave one, in that gloomy desert, whose attention and kindness to me had been uniform, and whose life I kneas valuable to very many The time has now passed, and I thank God that Mr Broho embarked in this expedition in reliance on th; but although he has regained his elasticity of spirits, and would, I have no doubt, again encounter even the same risks, he will yet remember Central Australia, and all that both of us there suffered