Future Experience
Showed Us That Further North The Gravel Becomes Small And Smaller Until
It Disappears, The Rolling Sandhills Giving Place To Regular Ridges.
If
this is the case viz., that the hills and ranges are gradually rotting
away until they disappear, leaving
Only gravel behind, which, in its
turn, decays and decays until only sand remains, then in the course of
ages the whole of this region will be covered with ridge upon ridge of
sand formed by the wind, whose powers so far have been checked by the
weight of the gravel. For the sake of future generations I hope my
reasoning is incorrect.
As I stood on the stony bank, I could see several native smokes to the
eastward. Determined to take advantage of any help extended to us by
Nature, to spare no pains in the all-important matter of finding water,
to let nothing pass that might assist us on our way, so that if it was
our fate to go under in the struggle I should not be assailed by the
thought that I had neglected opportunities, determined, in fact, always
to act for the best, so far as I could see it, I decided to make use of
this sign of the presence of natives, and altered our course in
consequence. We started due East and held on that course for eight miles,
Godfrey and Charlie lighting the spinifex at intervals. Some men have a
theory that the blacks signal by smokes, the appearance of which they
vary by using different grasses, branches, or leaves. That may be the
case in some parts; here, anyway, they are no more than hunting-fires, as
we later proved. If the desert blacks do go in for smoke-telegraphy they
must on this occasion have thought that the operator at our end of the
wire was mad! Perhaps unknowingly we sent up smokes which appeared to
them to be rational messages! If such was the case our signals could not
have meant "Please stay at home," for when eventually we did find their
camp they had left. Taking the bearing of the most northerly smoke we
travelled for the rest of the day in its direction. The next morning,
though the smoke had long since died down, we continued on our course and
in a few miles reached a large area of still smouldering spinifex. Around
this we searched for fresh tracks, and, having discovered some, made
camp. And now I have to chronicle the only occasion on which any one
disputed my orders. And this goes far to show that all I have said in
praise of the loyalty and untiring energy of my companions, is not meant
in empty compliment, but falls short of what they merit.
It was necessary for one to stay in camp and watch our belongings and the
camels, while the rest were engaged in tracking the natives. Our zeal was
so great that the camels were hardly, unloaded and hobbled before each
one had set out, and it followed that one must be sent back. For no
particular reason I fixed on Godfrey, who, instead of hailing with joy
the prospective rest, was most mutinous! The mutiny, however, was
short-lived, and ended in laughter when I pointed out how ridiculous his
objection was.
Charlie and I went in one direction, whilst Breaden and Warri took
another. Before long, so complicated were the tracks, we separated. A
more annoying job it is hard to imagine: round and round one goes
following a track in all its eccentric windings, running off at right
angles or turning back when its owner had chased a rat or a lizard; at
length there is a long stretch of straight walking and one thinks, "Now,
at last, he's done hunting and is making for home"; another disappointment
follows as one wheels round and finds one's self close to the
starting-point. Such was the experience this day of Breaden, Charlie,
and myself, and disgusted we returned to camp at sundown. Warri was so
late that I began to think he must have come upon the natives themselves,
who had given him too warm a welcome. Presently he appeared, slouching
along with an expressionless face, save for a twinkle in his eye
(literally eye, for one was wall-eyed). My supposition was more or less
correct; he had been fortunate in getting on the home-going tracks of
some gins; following these for several miles he came on their camp - so
suddenly that they nearly saw him. Luckily, he beat a hasty retreat,
doubtful of his reception, and hurried home.
CHAPTER VIII
A DESERT TRIBE
The next morning we were up betimes and ready to start as soon as ever
the tracks were visible; presently a smoke, their first hunting-smoke of
the day, rose close to us. Despatching Charlie on Satan, and Godfrey on
foot, with instructions to catch a native if possible, I hastened along
the tracks followed by the rest of the party. We reached their camp just
in time to see the late inmates disappear into a thicket of mulga close
by. Neither Charlie nor Godfrey was able to come up with the lighters of
the fire unseen, and these, too, fled into the scrub, where chase was
almost impossible. Their camp deserves description, as it was the first
(excepting travelling camps) we had seen of the desert black-fellow.
Facing the belt of mulga, was a low wall of uprooted tussocks of spinifex
built in a half circle and some two feet high. On the leeward side of
this breakwind, inside the semi-circle, half a dozen little hollows were
scraped out in the sand. Between each of these nests lay a little
heap of ashes, the remains of a fire which burns all night, replenished
from time to time from a bundle of sticks kept handy for the purpose. The
nest in the sand is the bed, a double one, and not only double but
treble, and more; for in it, coiled up snugly, may lie several of the
tribe, higgledy-piggledy, like pups in a basket.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 64 of 125
Words from 64329 to 65356
of 127189
