My Friend On This Occasion Was
Apostrophising His Horses With Oaths That Made My Flesh Creep, To Help
Them Up A Steep Hill.
The top reached, he petted and soothed his team in
most quaint language.
At the bottom of the slope he was a demon of
cruelty, at its summit a kind-hearted human being! I lunched with him,
sitting under his waggon for shade, and found him most entertaining - nor
was the old pony neglected, for he was given a fine feed of chaff and
oats.
In due time I reached Coolgardie, where Lord Douglas and our new partner,
Mr. Driffield (since drowned in a boating accident on the Swan River),
joined me. They had engaged the services of one Luck and his camels, and
had ridden up from the Cross. The rush to Kurnalpi had just broken out,
so Driffield, Luck, and I joined the crowd of fortune-hunters; and a
queer-looking crowd they were too, for every third or fourth swagman
carried on his shoulder a small portable condenser, the boiler hanging
behind him and the cooler in front; every party, whether with horses,
carts, or camels, carried condensers of one shape or another; for the
month was January, no surface water existed on the track, and only salt
water could be obtained, by digging in the salt lakes which the road
passed. The nearest water to the scene of the rush was a salt lake seven
miles distant, and this at night presented a strange appearance.
Condensers of every size and capacity fringed the two shores of a narrow
channel; under each was a fire, and round each all night long could be
seen figures, stoking the burning wood or drawing water, and in the
distance the sound of the axe could be heard, for at whatever time a party
arrived they had forthwith to set about "cooking water." The clattering
and hammering the incessant talking, and the figures flitting about in the
glare, reminded one of a crowded open-air market with flaring lamps and
frequent coffee stalls.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 32 of 468
Words from 8735 to 9079
of 127189
