Interesting As These Were, Our Thoughts
Were Turned To Water-Hunting, For The Weather - The Season Being
Midsummer - Was Scorching; The Poor Camels, Sore-Footed From The Stony
Granite, Parched With Thirst, And Forced To Carry Their Loads, Eight To
Twelve Hours A Day, Showed Signs Of Distress.
Weary and footsore
ourselves, tramping at full speed all day over the burning rocks, one with
the camels, the others on either hand, scouting, our casks all but empty,
our position was not enviable.
The night of the 30th our water was finished. The nearest known to us was
thirty-five miles off, and a a salt lake was between - a sufficient bar to
our hopes in that direction. Matters were by no means desperate, however,
for thirty miles north we were bound to cut the Cue-Mount Margaret road,
and having done so it would be merely a question of time, with a certainty
of arriving at a watering place eventually, if we and our camels could
hold out. A dry stage, however long, with the certainty of relief at the
end of it, gives little cause for anxiety when compared with one on which
neither the position nor even the existence of water can be known.
Next morning we followed up a small creek, and on crossing saw the tracks
of several kangaroos and emus making towards two peaks of quartz. Here was
our chance. It was my place of course to go, but I yielded to the
persuasion of Paddy and Jim, who insisted that I had denied myself water
to eke out our scanty supply (though I doubt if I had done so more than
they), and must rest.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 96 of 468
Words from 26649 to 26929
of 127189
