Dan's Sleep Had In No Wise Lessened His Faith In The Efficiency Of
Dust-Throwing, And As We Set Out He "Reckoned" The Missus Would "Learn A
Thing Or Two About Surprise Parties This Trip." We All Did, But The Black
Fellows Gave The Instruction.
All morning we rode in single file, following the river through miles of
deep gorges, crossing here and there
Stretches of grassy country that ran
in valleys between gorge and gorge, passing through deep Ti Tree forests
at times, and now and then clambering over towering limestone ridges that
blocked the way, with, all the while, the majestic Roper river flowing
deep and wide and silent on our left, between its water-lily fringed
margins. It would take a mighty drought to dry up the waters of the
Territory - permanent, we call them, sure of our rivers and our rains.
Almost fifty miles of these deep-flowing waterways fell to our share;
thirty-five miles of the Roper, twelve in the Long Reach, besides great
holes scattered here and there along the beds of creeks that are mighty
rivers in themselves "during the Wet." Too much water, if anything, was
the complaint at the Elsey, for water everywhere meant cattle everywhere.
For over two hours we rode, prying into and probing all sorts of odd
nooks and crannies before we found any sign of blacks, and then, Roper
giving the alarm, every one sat to attention. Roper had many ways of
amusing himself when travelling through bush, but one of his greatest
delights was nosing out hidden black fellows.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 238 of 304
Words from 65941 to 66204
of 84691
