"I can't make out. The noise they hear at night that they say is made by the Jinkarras is made by a bird—a kind of quail."
"Well, we must be off; pack up boys," said Brown.
About four o'clock a dense mass of foliage was visible ahead, which, as they drew nearer, proved to be huge paper-bark-trees, with long trailing branches, like gigantic weeping willows. The ground around these ancient giants was soft and spongy, and the bed of the creek was soon lost. The ground being too soft to allow of the horses progressing any further, a camp was made and they were hobbled out.
Leaving Billy to light a fire and mind camp, the three whites went on foot through this great white forest. The ground grew swampier as they proceeded, until at last, when within sight of a belt of tall reeds, they could proceed no farther. Moreover, the water was getting uncomfortably warm.
"Hot soda springs," said Brown; "this accounts for the growth of these trees. There's an easy one to climb," pointing to a bending one. "Let's go aloft and look ahead."
The tree was easy of ascent, and the three were soon high up amongst the branches. Beyond the reeds lay a lakelet of clear water, but, save for the deep fringe of rushes, not a plant of any sort was visible. No ducks or other aquatic birds could be seen.
"I guess that water's too warm for anything to live in it," said Morton.
It was a strange scene; the sun was sinking low, and anywhere else the place at that time would have been busy with feathered life, but here all was lifeless. The lakelet, surrounded by its border of tall reeds, in which there was apparently no break, lay there calm and unruffled.
"Let's get back to camp," said Brown. "Looks as though we'd got into a dead corner of the world."
Next morning it was determined to follow the swamp round to the westward to ascertain its extent. In a mile or two they came to where the basalt wall apparently ran out in the swamp, disappearing in a few scattered boulders. Just beyond this they came to a well-beaten track, which came round the swamp from the direction in which they were going and turned off amongst the basalt. Following this track along, in about a mile they came on two skeletons lying beside it. Some dry bits of skin still adhered here and there on the fleshless bones.