No Traces Of Any Human Inhabitants Were Seen, Nor Were The Usually Ever-Present, Tracks Of Native Game, Or Their Canine Enemy The Wild Dingo, Distinguishable Upon The Sands Of This Previously Untrodden Wilderness.

The silence and the solitude of this mighty waste were appalling to the mind, and I almost regretted that I had sworn to conquer it.

The only sound the ear could catch, as hour after hour we slowly glided on, was the passage of our noiseless treading and spongy-footed "ships" as they forced their way through the live and dead timber of the hideous scrubs. Thus we wandered on, farther from our camp, farther from our casks, and farther from everything we wished or required. A day and a half after Saleh left us, at our sixth night's encampment, we had left Ooldabinna 140 miles behind. I did not urge the camels to perform quick or extraordinary daily journeys, for upon the continuance of their powers and strength our own lives depended. When the camels got good bushes at night, they would fill themselves well, then lie down for a sleep, and towards morning chew their cud. When we found them contentedly doing so we knew they had had good food. I asked Alec one morning, when he brought them to the camp, if he had found them feeding; he replied, "Oh, no, they were all lying down chewing their KID." Whenever the camels looked well after this we said, "Oh, they are all right, they've been chewing their 'kid.'"

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 552 of 753
Words from 150128 to 150383 of 204780