We Had Been So
Well Off For Water Up To This Point, That We Had Hopes That The Rain Had
Penetrated Inland.
Leaving the creek on July 29th we again entered the scrub, finding it
lower and more open, the ground
Covered with occasional patches of grass
and a little squashy plant straggling along the ground - "Pigweed" is the
local name; it belongs, I believe, to the "portulacaceae." It is eaten by
the blacks, and would make excellent feed for stock were it higher from
the ground.
This day we saw the last auriferous country we were to meet with until
Kimberley was reached. These hills, of diorite, with occasional blows of
ironstone, I take to be a continuation the Neckersgat Range (Wells, 1892).
Many traces of prospectors were visible here - the last to be seen for
many a day - shallow dry-blowing holes and little heaps of sieved dirt,
and the tracks of camels and horses. This was a piece of country worth
trying, had we not had other objects in view.
Two rather curious ironstone dykes, standing square and wall-like above
the ground, occur in these hills, some seven miles apart, running nearly
North and South and parallel; between them a deep but narrow creek, a
saltbush flat, and a ridge of diorite. Standing out prominently to the
south of the first dyke are two sugar-loaf hills, and, beyond them,
distant ranges are visible. Leaving the range the country to the East
underwent a distinct change for the worse; and midday of July 31st found
us on the borders of an unmistakable desert, the North-West corner of the
Great Victoria Desert.
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