To The East, To The
North-East, And To The South-West From Where We Had Come, He Made It
Clear That Water Existed.
Evidently we had not been far from his camp
when we caught him, and we could hardly blame him for leading us away
from his own supply, which he rightly judged we and our camels would
exhaust.
Standing by the dry rock-hole we could see for many miles, the country to
the North-East being considerably lower than where we were; not a
cheerful view - sand-ridges always! Not a hill or range to be seen, and
yet people have doubted if this really is a desert!
It may happen that in days to come some other party may be stranded in
this region and therefore I will leave out no description that could
assist them in finding the water that King Billy (for so had we named the
buck) eventually took us to. The dry rock-hole (Mulundella) is situated
on a surface outcrop of desert sandstone, about fifty yards across
surrounded by thick mulga scrub, enclosed between two sand-ridges running
North-East and South-West.
On the North and East side of the outcrop the ground suddenly drops,
forming what appears from the distance as a line of sheer cliffs. Down
this steep slope, which is covered with scrub, we discovered a passage,
and, at the foot, found ourselves in an open spinifex plain with a
sand-ridge on either hand. We were steering N.E. by N., and in consequence
had now and again to cross a ridge, since they ran due North-East. After
three miles low outcrops of limestone appeared at intervals, the scrub in
the trough of the ridges became more open with an undergrowth of coarse
grass, buck-bush or "Roly-Poly" (SALSOLA KALI) and low acacia. Hugging
the ridge on our left, we followed along this belt for another one and a
half miles; when, close to the foot of a sandhill, our guide, secured to
my belt by a rope round his waist, stopped and excitedly pointed out what
seemed on first sight to be three rock-holes, in a small, bare patch of
limestone not more than thirty feet across. Twenty yards to the right or
left and we would never have seen it; and to this spot King Billy had
brought us full speed, only stopping once to examine some rocks at the
foot of one ridge, as if to make sure that we were in the right valley.
On further investigation the three holes turned out to be entrances, of
which two were large enough for a man to pass through, leading
perpendicularly to a cave beneath. With the help of a rope Charlie and I
descended twenty-five feet to the floor of the chamber, which we found to
be covered with sand to a depth of two feet. In the sand we dug holes but
did not succeed in getting even moisture.
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