Did Not
Ernest Giles Die, Only The Other Day, In Poverty And Neglect?
I know he
had a Government billet at 2 pounds 10 shillings a week, noble and
generous reward for the best years of his life spent in toiling over the
howling wilderness of the interior!
Doubtless all debts will be
considered paid by the erection of a statue, and nine people out of ten
will not have any notion of who the man was or what he has done! Tietkens
in 1889 led an expedition to determine the true extent of Lake Amadeus,
the confines of which were marked as "probable." His work resulted in
greatly decreasing the area of the lake, which now lies entirely in South
Australia. However, this side of the border he found the lake already
mentioned, and, encircling it, returned to the point on the
Adelaide-Port-Darwin telegraph line from which he had started.
The lake is surrounded, at a distance, by numerous sandstone ranges and
hills, the drainage from them no doubt forming it. Tietkens experienced
rains in this region; no such luck fell our way, and everything was
parched and drought-stricken. I was able to identify the Winnecke Hills,
and one or two others, but, having only a small map of this part of the
country, could not locate many points.
Close to the Winnecke Hills we again surprised two gins hunting, and,
amongst their spoils of the chase, were astonished to see a common
domestic black cat, evidently just killed. It must have wandered far from
home! One of the women took us to their camp and small well, which was in
so awkward a situation that I decided not to do any work upon it. Its
position was in a very steep, narrow gorge in the sandstone, along which
the camels could pass with difficulty. There was no feed for our animals,
except at the mouth of the gorge a mile distant, and then there was but
little. It would take three to work the well, leaving only one to look
after the camp, and "tail" the horses and camels. Since the supply was
problematical, the well almost inaccessible, and waste of time the only
likely result, we passed on - the one and only occasion on which we left a
well untried. Numerous natives must have been in this camp, for I found
no less than thirteen bark "portmanteaus." As the gin had shown us the
well without demur, I left all these untouched. It was a struggle between
honesty and curiosity; but it seemed too mean to take things, however
interesting, when they had been left so confidently unprotected. And yet
birds' nests are robbed without any such scruples! I had no hesitation,
though, in taking the gin with us, in spite of her unwillingness, for
famished horses must be relieved. Once across the hills the sand-ridges
became less high, were dotted with oaks, and even had some herbage
growing on them.
CHAPTER VI
LAKE MACDONALD TO THE DEEP ROCK-HOLES
On the 16th we had breakfast by moonlight, and were well on our way
before daylight.
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