Australia Twice Traversed - The Romance Of Exploration, Through Central South Australia, And Western Australia, From 1872 To 1876 By Ernest Giles
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Crossing Another Tributary Where
There Was Plenty Of Water, We Next Saw A Large Clay-Hole In The Main
Creek - It Was, However, Dry.
When there was some water in it, the
natives had fenced it round to catch any large game that might come to
drink; at present they were saved the trouble, for game and water had
both alike departed.
Mr. Tietkens, my lieutenant and second in
command, found a very pretty amphitheatre formed by the hills; we
encamped there, at some clay-pans; the grass, however, was very poor;
scrubs appeared on the other side of the creek. A junction with
another creek occurred near here, beyond which the channel was broad,
flat, sandy, and covered indiscriminately with timber; scrubs existed
on either bank. We had to cross and recross the bed as the best road.
We found a place in it where the natives had dug, and where we got
water, but the supply was very unsatisfactory, an enormous quantity of
sand having to be shifted before the most willing horse could get down
to it. We succeeded at length with the aid of canvas buckets, and by
the time the whole twenty four were satisfied, we were also. The grass
was dry as usual, but the horses ate it, probably because there is no
other for them. Our course to-day was 8 degrees south of west. Close
to where we encamped were three or four saplings placed in a row in
the bed of the creek, and a diminutive tent-frame, as though some one,
if not done by native children, had been playing at erecting a
miniature telegraph line.
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