However, The Van Treuer Does Not Run
Nearly So Far East As Wells Supposed When He Sighted It From The
South.
No crossing could be effected yet, so the next day we continued along the
margin of the lake, along
A narrow strip of salt-bush country hemmed in
between the lake and sandhills. On July 2nd we found the narrow place
where Wells had crossed in 1892; the tracks of his camels were still
visible in the soft ground. The crossing being narrow, and the bog
shallow - no more than a few inches above a hard bed of rock - we had no
trouble whatever.
We now followed the same course as Wells had done, passing Lyell-Brown
Bluff - from which Mount Elisabeth bears 339 degrees - and Parson's Bluff,
eventually striking the Bonython Creek. This, as described by Wells, is a
flat, shallow, and, in places, but ill-defined watercourse. In it are one
or two good deep pools, of which one is probably permanent. Fringing the
banks is a narrow strip of salt-bush and grass; beyond that mulga and
coarse grass. This narrow belt of good country continues down to the
lake, and as we saw it just after the rain looked fresh and green. There
is no extent, but sufficient to form a good resting-place for travelling
stock. Some cattle-tracks of recent date were visible, a small wild herd
of stragglers probably from the Gascoyne. Turkeys were seen in fair
numbers, but they were the shyest birds I have ever come across - so much
so that we never got a shot.
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