DISTRESSING MARCH.
I soon found that we had landed under very unfavourable circumstances. The sun was intensely hot. The long and close confinement on board a small vessel had unfitted us all for taking any violent or continued exercise without some previous training, and the country in which we had landed was of a more rocky and precipitous character than any I had ever before seen; indeed I could not more accurately describe the hills than by saying that they appeared to be the ruins of hills; composed as they were of huge blocks of red sandstone, confusedly piled together in loose disorder, and so overgrown with spinifex and scrub that the interstices wore completely hidden, and into these one or other of the party was continually slipping and falling.
The trees were small, and their foliage so scant and slight that they afforded no shelter whatever from the burning rays of the sun; which appeared to strike up again from the sandstone with redoubled heat, so that it was really painful to touch or to stand upon a bare rock: we therefore kept moving onwards in the hope of meeting with some spot favourable for a halting place; but the difficult nature of the ground which we had to cross rendered our progress slow and oppressively laborious.
A feeling of thirst and lassitude such as I had never before experienced soon began to overcome all of us; for such a state of things we had unfortunately landed quite unprepared, having only two pints of water with us, a portion of which it was necessary to give to the dogs; who apparently suffered from the heat in an equal degree with ourselves. These distressing symptoms I can only ascribe to the extreme heat of the sun reflected from the sandstone rocks, and our previous long confinement on board.
LOSS OF OUR THREE DOGS.
Our small supply of water, although but sparingly used, was soon exhausted; and the symptoms of lassitude, before so excessive, now became far worse. As usual, the endurance of the animals gave way before that of the men. We had not completed more than a mile of our route (although it was far more if the ascents and descents were taken into account) when Ranger, a very fine young dog, dropped behind some rocks, and although we turned back to look for him directly he was missed he could not be found.
The next to give way was Ringhalz, a fine Cape buck-hound; he fell amongst the rocks, and died almost instantly. The only dog now left was a greyhound, who manifested his extreme distress by constantly lying down. For some time we dragged him along, but he was at last from necessity abandoned. The cry of water was at length raised by one of the party, and immediately afterwards we found ourselves on the edge of a deep ravine, the precipitous sides of which were composed of nearly horizontal layers of red sandstone. Down these some of us contrived to scramble, although not without difficulty; but on reaching the bottom we had the mortification to find the water salt; and as it would have been very laborious to follow its course along the bottom of the ravine over the mud, mangroves, and rocks which filled it, we had the pleasure of scrambling up again as we best could.
For some short time we remained seated on the edge of the cliffs above the ravine; but as there was no shelter here from the sun's rays, and the pangs of thirst were pressing, I roused the men at last, and moved on again, following the course of the ravine upwards. We had not walked more than half a mile when the salt water inlet terminated and the bed of the ravine became thickly wooded. At the moment we gained this point some white cockatoos came soaring upwards from beneath our feet; and, as we knew that this was an infallible sign of the presence of water, we descended again to renew our search for it.
WATER DISCOVERED.
Our efforts this time were successful: in a few minutes we found a pool of brackish water which appeared, under the present circumstances, to afford the most delicious draughts, and, having drunk, we lay down by the pool to rest ourselves. Being however doubtful as to which was the best route to lead us out of the ravine we were now in, I walked up its course, accompanied by Corporal Coles, leaving the others to rest themselves, and soon reached its head; when we found ourselves in a small but fertile valley, surrounded on all sides by rocky hills. Here were many tracks of natives, and we came upon one of their regular haunts, where they had arranged a circle of large flat stones round a fireplace occupying the centre; on each of these stones was laid a smaller one, evidently used for the purpose of breaking small shellfish, for the remains of the shells were lying scattered about in all directions;* kangaroo bones were also plentifully strewed about, and beside each pair of stones was laid a large shell, probably used as a drinking cup.