Buoyed Up By
The Certainty Of Water So Long As We Had The Buck With Us We Pushed On,
Until Just After Sunset The Country Changed From Sand To Stony Rises And
We Felt Sure A Rock-Hole Was Not Far Off.
A little further, and, by the
uncertain light, we could see a fair-sized hole with water in it.
I ran
ahead, and was the first to realise that the native had deceived us; the
hole was dry! and must have been so for months.
No sooner did the buck see that I had found him out than he made a sudden
bolt and attempt at escape - very neatly done, but not quick enough to pass
Breaden. This was indeed a disappointment! I had thought it probable that
our guide would lead us anywhere into the sand and try to escape, but I
never guessed that he would tantalise us as he had done. In any case, so
long as he was with us, we must some time get water - and we had no
intention of letting him escape. With a rope we secured him and watched
in turn all through the night.
Never were jailers more vigilant, for that black-fellow meant our lives.
He tried all means of escape, and never slept the whole night through. He
would lie still with closed eyes for a time, and then make a sudden
struggle to wrench the rope away from his captor; then stealthily with
his foot he tried to push the rope into the fire; then he started rubbing
it on the rock on which we lay; and last of all his teeth were brought
into use. When my turn came to watch, I pretended to sleep, to see what
he would do, and so discovered all his tricks. I confess that I saw with
delight the evident feelings of thirst that before long overcame him - the
salt beef had done its duty; he had had no water of course, for we had
none to give him, and I felt sure that he would be only too eager in the
morning. Nor was I mistaken; long before daylight he showed signs of
distress, and anxiety to go on, standing up and stretching out his long,
thin arm - "Gabbi" (water), he said, pointing in three different
directions, putting his head back and pointing with his chin, making a
noise something between a grunt and a puff. To the East, to the
North-East, and to the South-West from where we had come, he made it
clear that water existed. Evidently we had not been far from his camp
when we caught him, and we could hardly blame him for leading us away
from his own supply, which he rightly judged we and our camels would
exhaust.
Standing by the dry rock-hole we could see for many miles, the country to
the North-East being considerably lower than where we were; not a
cheerful view - sand-ridges always! Not a hill or range to be seen, and
yet people have doubted if this really is a desert!
It may happen that in days to come some other party may be stranded in
this region and therefore I will leave out no description that could
assist them in finding the water that King Billy (for so had we named the
buck) eventually took us to. The dry rock-hole (Mulundella) is situated
on a surface outcrop of desert sandstone, about fifty yards across
surrounded by thick mulga scrub, enclosed between two sand-ridges running
North-East and South-West.
On the North and East side of the outcrop the ground suddenly drops,
forming what appears from the distance as a line of sheer cliffs. Down
this steep slope, which is covered with scrub, we discovered a passage,
and, at the foot, found ourselves in an open spinifex plain with a
sand-ridge on either hand. We were steering N.E. by N., and in consequence
had now and again to cross a ridge, since they ran due North-East. After
three miles low outcrops of limestone appeared at intervals, the scrub in
the trough of the ridges became more open with an undergrowth of coarse
grass, buck-bush or "Roly-Poly" (SALSOLA KALI) and low acacia. Hugging
the ridge on our left, we followed along this belt for another one and a
half miles; when, close to the foot of a sandhill, our guide, secured to
my belt by a rope round his waist, stopped and excitedly pointed out what
seemed on first sight to be three rock-holes, in a small, bare patch of
limestone not more than thirty feet across. Twenty yards to the right or
left and we would never have seen it; and to this spot King Billy had
brought us full speed, only stopping once to examine some rocks at the
foot of one ridge, as if to make sure that we were in the right valley.
On further investigation the three holes turned out to be entrances, of
which two were large enough for a man to pass through, leading
perpendicularly to a cave beneath. With the help of a rope Charlie and I
descended twenty-five feet to the floor of the chamber, which we found to
be covered with sand to a depth of two feet. In the sand we dug holes but
did not succeed in getting even moisture. Plunged as we were so suddenly
into darkness, our eyes could distinguish no passage leading from the
chamber, and it seemed as if we had been tricked again. Further
exploration by the light of candles revealed two passages, one leading
west and upwards, the other east and downwards. Charlie chose the latter;
before long I came to the end of mine, having failed to find anything but
bats, bones of birds and dingoes, and old native camp-fires. Following
Charlie, I found him crawling on hands and knees down a steep
slope - progress was slow, as the floor was rough and the ceiling jagged;
presently the passage dropped again, and at the end, below us, we could
see our candles reflected, and knew that at last we had water!
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