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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We Now Turned To Some
Ridges A Few Miles Nearer Than The Main Range, And Dug A Tank, For The
Horses Badly Wanted Water.
A very small quantity drained in, and the
animals had to go a second night unwatered.
It was now the 22nd of
September, and I had hoped to have some rain at the equinox, but none
had yet fallen. The last two days have been very warm and oppressive.
The country round these ridges was very good, and plenty of the little
purple vetch grew here. The tank in the morning was quite full; it
however watered only seventeen horses, but by twelve o'clock all were
satisfied, and we left the tank for the benefit of those whom it might
concern.
(ILLUSTRATION: ZOE'S GLEN.)
We were steering for an enticing-looking glen between two high hills
about south-south-west. We passed over sandhills, through scrubs, and
eventually on to open ground. At two or three miles from the new range
we crossed a kind of dry swamp or water flat, being the end of a gum
creek. A creek was seen to issue from the glen as we approached, and
at twelve miles from our last camp we came upon running water in the
three channels which existed. The day was warm, 94 degrees. The water
was slightly brackish. Heat and cold are evidently relative
perceptions, for this morning, although the thermometer stood at 58
degrees, I felt the atmosphere exceedingly cold. We took a walk up the
glen whence the creek flows, and on to some hills which environ it.
The water was rushing rapidly down the glen; we found several fine
rock-basins - one in particular was nine or ten feet deep, the pellucid
element descending into it from a small cascade of the rocks above;
this was the largest sheet of water per se I had yet discovered upon
this expedition.
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