From 132, We Take 90 (The Horses' Share).
This Leaves 42 Gallons For Four Men And A Dog (Which Drinks
As much as
a man) for eleven days; this supply was used for washing (an item hardly
appreciable), bread-making,
Drinking, and beef-boiling, the last the most
ruinous item; for dry-salted beef is very salt indeed, and unless boiled
thoroughly (it should be boiled in two waters) makes one fearfully
thirsty. What would otherwise have been an easy task was made difficult
and uncomfortable by the presence of the horses, but we were well
rewarded by the satisfaction of seeing them alive at the finish.
CHAPTER VIII
WOODHOUSE LAGOON REVISITED
June 12th, 13th, 14th, we rested at the welcome creek and had time to
examine our surroundings. I made the position of our camp to be in lat.
26 degrees 0 minutes, long. 125 degrees 22 minutes, and marked a gum tree
near it with C7. Therefore I concluded that this was the Blythe Creek, of
Forrest; everything pointed to my conclusion being correct, excepting the
failure to find Forrest's marked tree, and to locate his Sutherland
Range. However, the bark might have grown over the marking on the
tree - and several trees showed places where bark had been cut out by the
natives for coolimans, and subsequently closed again - or the tree might
have been burned, or blown down. As to the second, I am convinced that
Forrest mistook the butt-ends of the sand-ridges cut off by Lake Breaden
for a range of hills, for he only saw them from a distance. The creek
heads in a broken sandstone range of tabletops and cliffs; from its head
I sighted a peculiar peak, about nine miles distant, which I took to be
Forrest's "Remarkable Peak," marked on his map. From the sketch that I
made, Sir John recognised the peak at once. From the cliffs the sandhills
round Lake Breaden look exactly like a range of hills "covered," as
Forrest said, "with spinifex." Another proof of the non-existence of, at
all events, the northern portion of the Sutherland Range, is afforded by
Breaden's experience. As I have already stated, he accompanied Mr.
Carr-Boyd on a prospecting trip along this part of Forrest's Route. From
his diary I see that they passed about three miles North of Forrest's
peak, which Breaden identified, though by Mr. Carr-Boyd's reckoning they
should have been twenty miles from it. Travelling due West across the
creek on which we were camped, they found a large clay-pan, and were then
hourly expecting to cross the Sutherland Range. However, no range was
seen, only high sandhills. That Breaden's reckoning was correct was soon
proved, for he and I walked from our camp and six miles West found the
big clay-pan and their camel tracks. The lagoon was dry, though they had
found it full of water. It is clear, therefore, that the range exists
only as sandhills, north of lat. 26 degrees 0 minutes. Numerous other
creeks rise in the broken range, and no doubt their waters, after rain,
find their way into Lake Breaden.
Our camp was on the longest of them, though others that I followed down
were broader. Above our camp, that is to the South-East, a ledge of rock
crossed the creek forming a deep little pool which would hold plenty of
water. I much regretted being unable to find Forrest's tree - but a tree
unless close to some landmark is not easily come upon - as at its foot he
buried a bottle holding letters and his position for that camp.
We saw no more of the natives who had been camped on the creek, but left
some articles that should be of great use to them. Everything of weight
that was not absolutely necessary was left here, and this included a
number of horseshoes.
On, the 15th we were ready to start, and marched on a West-South-West
course until we should sight Mount Worsnop, and turn West to the
Woodhouse Lagoon. A mile and a half from our camp we crossed another
creek, and on its banks a tree marked G.H.S., and NARROO cut in the bark.
Evidently the prospectors had been pushing out in our absence, or else it
was another overland party from South Australia, for Forrest's route has
become quite a fashionable track, some half-dozen parties having crossed
the Colony in this latitude. On the next day we sighted Mount Worsnop
from eight miles (from the East it is more prominent than from the
South). This was a day of miracles! It RAINED - actually RAINED! The first
rain we had seen in the interior - not a hard rain, but an all-day
drizzle. How cold it made us, and how wet! - not that we minded that. But
the winter was approaching, we were daily getting further south, and with
our blood thin and poor, our clothes of the lightest and most ragged,
accustomed to scorching heat, we felt the cold rain very much indeed. Our
teeth chattered, and our hands were so numbed that at night we could
hardly undo the straps and ropes of our loads. A cold night, accompanied
by a heavy dew, followed the rain; and for the first time on either
journey we pitched a tent. During this, Devil-devil, wet and shivering,
sneaked into my blankets for warmth, for, as a rule, he slept outside, in
a little nest I made for him in one of the camel saddles. Such sudden
changes in temperature made any "Barcoo" sores most painful; but
fortunately we had suffered comparatively little from this unpleasant
disease. A beautiful sun dried and warmed us in the morning, and crossing
a narrow salt-lake (probably a continuation of Lake Breaden), we reached
our old friend Woodhouse Lagoon on June 17th, nearly a year having
elapsed since our first visit, August 19th, in 1896.
We were disappointed, but not surprised, to find the lagoon nearly dry,
holding no more than six inches of water in the deepest place.
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