It Had Given Me
Absolute Confidence In Breaden, Godfrey, And Charlie, And I Trust Had
Imbued Them With A Similar Faith In Me.
August 11th to 15th we rested at the cave, occupying ourselves in the
numerous odd jobs that are always to be found, happy in the knowledge
that we had an unfailing supply of water beneath us.
I have little doubt
but that this water is permanent, and do not hesitate to call it a
spring. I know well that previous travellers have called places "springs"
which in after years have been found dry; but I feel sure that this
supply so far, nearly sixty feet, below the surface, must be derived from
a permanent source, and even in the hottest season is too well protected
to be in any way decreased by evaporation.
As a humble tribute to the world-wide rejoicings over the long reign of
our Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria, I have honoured this hidden well of
water by the name of "The Empress Spring." A more appropriate name it
could not have, for is it not in the Great Victoria Desert? and was it
not in that region that another party was saved by the happy finding of
Queen Victoria Spring?
The "Empress Spring" would be a hard spot to find. What landmarks there
are I will now describe. My position for the Spring is lat. 26 degrees 47
minutes 21 seconds S., long. 124 degrees 25 minutes E. Its probable
native name (I say probable because one can never be sure of words taken
from a wild aboriginal, who, though pointing out a water, may, instead of
repeating its name, be perhaps describing its size or shape) is
"Murcoolia Ayah Teenyah." The entrance is in a low outcrop of magnesian
limestone, surrounded by buckbush, a few low quondongs and a low,
broom-like shrub; beyond this, mulga scrub.
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