As Soon As Possible I Joined Him And Explained My Seemingly
Strange Action.
We tracked up the natives, and found they had been
following a regular pad, which before long led us to a fine big rock-hole
in the bed of a deep and rocky gully.
A great flight of crows circling
about a little distance off, made us sure that another pool existed;
following down the first gully and turning to the left up another, deeper
and broader, we found our surmise had been correct. Before us, at the
foot of an overhanging rock, was a beautiful clear pool. What a glorious
sight! We wasted no time in admiring it from a distance, and each in turn
plunged into the cool water, whilst the other kept watch on the rocks
above. Sheltered as it was from the sun, except for a short time during
the day, this pool was as ice compared to the blazing, broiling heat
overhead, and was indeed a luxury. By the side of the pool, under the
overhanging rock, some natives had been camped, probably our friends the
warriors; the ashes were still hot, and scattered about were the remains
of a meal, feathers and bones of hawks and crows. Above the overhanging
rock, in the middle of the gully, is a small rock-hole with most
perfectly smooth sides, so situated that rain water running down the
gully would first fill the rock-hole, and, overflowing, would fall some
twenty feet into the pool below. The rock is of soft, yellowish-white
sandstone. Close to the water edge I carved C96 and Godfrey scratched the
initials of all of us. The pool, which when full would hold some forty
thousand gallons, I named "Godfrey's Tank," as he was the first white
man to set eyes upon it.
Having finished our bathe, we set about looking for a path by which to
bring the camels for a drink; the gorge was too rocky and full of huge
boulders to make its passage practicable, and it seemed as if we should
have to make a detour of a good many miles before reaching the water.
Fortunately this was unnecessary, for on meeting Breaden he told us he
had found a small pool at the head of the first valley which was easy of
access. This was good news, so we returned to camp, and, as it was now
dark, did not move that night. And what a night it was! - so hot and
oppressive that sleep was impossible. It was unpleasant enough to be
roasted by day, but to be afterwards baked by night was still more so! A
fierce fire, round which perhaps the warriors were dancing, lit up the
rocks away beyond the headlands, the glow showing all the more
brilliantly from the blackness of the sky.
The next morning we packed up and moved camp to the pool, passing up the
first valley - Breaden Valley - with the first promontory on our left. At
the mouth of the valley, on the south side, are three very noticeable
points, the centre one being conical with a chimney-like block on one
side, and flanking it on either hand table-topped hills.
Down the valley runs a deep but narrow creek which eventually finds its
way round the foot of the headlands into a ti-tree-encircled red lagoon
enclosed by sand-ridges. Near the head of the valley the creek splits;
near the head of the left-hand branch is Godfrey's Tank; in the other,
just before it emerges from the cliffs, is the small pool found by
Breaden. Several kinds of trees new to me were growing in the valleys,
one, a very pretty crimson-blossomed tree, not unlike a kurrajong in size,
shape, and character of the wood, but with this difference, in leaf, that
its leaves were divided into two points, whilst the kurrajong has three.
One of these trees had been recently chopped down with a blunt implement,
probably a stone tomahawk, and a half-finished piece of work - I think a
shield - was lying close by. The wood is soft, and must be easily shaped.
It is rather curious that the natives, of whom, judging from the smoke
seen in all directions, there must be a fair number, should not have been
camped at such a splendid water as Godfrey's Tank, the reason of their
absence being, I suppose, that camping in the barren hills would entail
a longish walk every day to any hunting grounds. To the native "enough
is as good as a feast," and a wretched little well as serviceable as a
large pool. The nights were so cloudy that I was unable to see any stars,
but by dead reckoning only the position of the pool is lat. 20 degrees 15
minutes long. 126 degrees 25 minutes.
From the top of the highest headland, which is divided into two
nipple-like peaks, an extensive view can be obtained. To the South and the
South-East, the Southesk Tablelands; to the East, broken tablelands and
sandhills; to the North, the same; to the North-West, nothing but
hopeless ridge upon ridge of sand as far as the horizon. To the West,
some ten miles distant, a line of cliffs running North and South, with
sand-ridges beyond, and a plain of spinifex between; to the North of the
cliffs an isolated table-top hill, showing out prominently - this I named
Mount Cornish, after my old friend and tutor in days gone by.
Leaving the hills on the 21st, we soon reached a little colony of
detached hills of queer shapes, one, as Breaden said, looking "like a
clown's cap." From the top of the highest, which I named Mount Ernest,
after my brother-in-law, a dismal scene stretched before us, nothing but
the interminable sand-ridges, the horizon as level as that of the ocean.
What heartbreaking country, monotonous, lifeless, without interest,
without excitement save when the stern necessity of finding water forced
us to seek out the natives in their primitive camps!
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