As A Rule The Blacks Have Such Splendid Teeth That The Dwarf's
Case Is Remarkable, Seeing That He Was Not At All An Old Man.
[* Note: A native bark "portmanteau," brought back from this locality,
was opened at Newstead Abbey and found to contain -
1. Plumes of hawks' and crows' feathers.
2. Neck-bands of opossum wool.
3. String bracelets.
4. Fragments of quartz, suitable for spear and chisel heads.
5. Fragments of sandstone, for making red paint.
6. Message-stick.
7. A stick 12 inches long, wrapped in downy feathers and greasy string;
on this was wound a great length of human-hair string, forming a
bobbin-shaped article, the use of which I do not know. I have now three
portmanteaus still unopened.]
The Dwarf Well had a better supply than any we had seen, and it is
possible that there is some soakage into it from the surrounding country.
It lies nearly five miles south of a low range of hills, the highest
point of which bears 1 degree from it; to the North a sand-ridge, to the
South a spinifex plain, six miles wide, then more ridges. I make its
position to be lat. 22 degrees 19 minutes, long. 128 degrees 16 minutes.
On the plain to the south are one or two small outcrops of ironstone and
quartz, sticking up out of the sand, as if some hills other than sandstone
had existed, and become buried by the all-spreading sand. I carved C on a
tall mulga-tree close to the well.
May 9th we left the well on a Southerly course, and were soon amongst the
ridges, which continued for the next two days. The night of the 11th,
having skirted a line of rough cliffs, we camped about three miles North
of a very prominent single hill, which I named Mount Webb, after W. F.
Webb, Esq., of Newstead Abbey, Nottinghamshire. As the sun rose that
morning the mirage of a lake of apparently great size was visible for
90 degrees of the horizon - that is, from East round to South. Neither from
the cliffs that we skirted, nor from Mount Webb, was any lake visible, but
it is more than probable that a large salt lake exists in this locality,
possibly connecting, in a broken line, Lake White and Lake Macdonald. A
mirage sometimes appears in exactly the opposite direction from that in
which the lake lies, but I noticed when standing on the Stansmore Range
that as the sun rose Lake White was clearly visible, whilst when the sun
had risen a few degrees above the horizon the lake disappeared. I am of
opinion, therefore, that large lakes will some day be found to lie to the
North-East of Mount Webb. Had we not been so pressed for time I should
have made a flying trip in this direction. Mount Webb is flat-topped,
isolated, rocky-sided, innocent of all vegetation, of sandstone capped
with quartzite, standing out with imposing clearness some five hundred
feet above a plain of spinifex and mulga scrubs. From its summit numerous
hills and bluffs can be seen; to the South spinifex plains and ridges;
to the South-East a tabletop between two bluffs; to the West a low line
of stony hills, beyond them a limitless sea of sandhills; to the
North-West a broken range of peaks, and, far distant, a large hill
swaying in the haze of heat.
From the foot of the hill a hunting-fire was seen close by. "Gabbi,
gabbi," said the dwarf, greatly excited; and when we turned towards
it "Yo-yo-yo" in approval. As we silently approached we saw two
old hags flitting about, as nimbly as their aged limbs would allow, in
the blazing spinifex - now picking up a dead lizard, and now poking about
with their yam-sticks as if in search of some rat which had been roasted
in his burrow. It is impossible to describe the look of terrific awe on
the faces of these quaint savages. Let us imagine our own feelings on
being, without warning, confronted by a caravan of strange prehistoric
monsters; imagine an Easter holiday tripper surrounded by the fearful
beasts at the Crystal Palace suddenly brought to life! What piercing
shrieks they gave forth, as, leaving their hunting implements, they raced
away, to drop, all at once, behind a low bush, where, like the ostrich,
they hid their heads, and so hoped to escape detection.
It was almost impossible to gain the confidence of the gins: old ladies
seem so very suspicious. The dwarf somewhat reassured them, and after
much difficulty one was persuaded to show their camp - and such a
camp! - perched up in the rocks on a little plot of sand, close by a
miniature watercourse, and in this a small native well, so rock-bound
as to preclude further opening out. And yet for this miserable affair we
were glad to offer up thanks, for the sake of the ponies. What labour for
a few gallons of water, not so much as we use in our baths every morning
in civilised countries! But no man could stand idly by and watch the mute
longing of his faithful horses. So freeing the dwarf and the old gin, a
fit pair, we set to work. All that afternoon and all through the night we
dug and hauled and scraped, and by morning had the horses watered and
twenty gallons to boot. There had been eight or nine blacks at this camp,
who, on their return from hunting in the evening, watched our proceedings
with intense annoyance. They stopped about one hundred yards away, and,
yelling and shrieking, brandished their spears in a most warlike manner.
That night they camped not far off, and, as on every other occasion on
which we invaded their homes, I consider we owed our immunity from attack
to the fact that work on the well entailed one or other of the party
being up all through the night, thus acting as a watch.
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