Seeing that
they had never been in anything but good country all their lives, and
that now we had suddenly come out of it into the howling waste, they
showed satisfactory endurance, having been eighty hours with only six
gallons of water each during that time. What English thoroughbred could
have done this?
The next day Breaden and I rode up to Mount Elphinstone, which we found
to be formed of three great rocky shoulders of sandstone capped with
quartzite, almost bare, and stony on the top, with sheer faces one
hundred feet high on the West side and a gradual slope to the East, where
high sand-ridges run right up to the foot. From the summit a high
tableland [Probably Musgrave Range (Warburton)] and range can be seen to
the North, to the East a bluff-ended tableland, [Probably Philipson Range
(Warburton)] but the horizon from South-East to South-West was a dead
level.
One mile due West of the highest point we found a native well in a sandy
gutter, and about 150 yards from it, to the East, a high wall of bare
rock as regular as if it had been built. This wall, seen edge-on from the
North-West, from which point Breaden sighted it when after the camels,
appears like a chimney-stack.
As the soaks at which we were camped have the appearance of being more
permanent than the usual native well, it may be useful to give directions
for finding them from Mount Elphinstone. Leave hill on bearing 230
degrees, cross one sand-ridge close to hills, then spinifex plain, then
another sand-ridge running East and West, from the crest of which can be
seen three gaps in the next one - steer for most Westerly gap, and seven
miles from the hill the soaks will be found. Having no time for further
investigation, we returned to camp, and to ensure an early start tied the
camels down for the night, since they had been feeding all day. Bluey
again proved to be a vicious brute, and kicked me in the chest, knocking
me down; but the other new camels daily improved in their manners. We had
great trouble in cleaning off from their backs the clay with which they
were smeared, having rolled in some shallow clay-pans near the lakes. It
was most necessary to scrape it off somehow, as otherwise sore backs
would have resulted; and, indeed, Stoddy's sore back started in this way
by the friction of the saddle and the caked mud.
The country ahead looked so bad that I decided to take the two bucks with
us for as long as they knew the waters, so secured the one to the other
by the neck, with plenty of spare chain between. They marched with us
apparently perfectly happy, and even anxious to point out the directions
of various native wells.
