Stockdale found his resources too much reduced, both in
horseflesh and rations, to continue the exploration. They started for the
telegraph line, but on the way the two men who had been misbehaving
requested to be left behind. As they persisted in their wish, there was
nothing left but to accede to it. The two men, with as much rations as
could be spared, arms, and powder and shot, were then left at their own
request on a permanent creek in a country where game could be obtained.
Stockdale himself had to undergo some hardship before reaching the
Overland Line. Although search was made for the two men, they were never
afterwards found.

One little area of country, of no great importance but still untrodden by
man yet remained in Central Australia, as a lure to excite the white
man's curiosity. This unvisited spot was situated north of latitude 26,
and bounded on the west by the Finke River, on the north by the Plenty
and Marshall Rivers and part of the MacDonnell Ranges, and on the west by
the Hay River and the Queensland border. An expedition to exploit it was
equipped by Ronald MacPherson, and assisted by the South Australian
Government with the loan of camels. The leader was Captain V. Barclay, an
old South Australian surveyor, whose name has already been mentioned in
these pages.

Barclay had been born in Lancashire, at Bury, on the 6th of January,
1845. He had entered the Royal Navy in 1860, and had been severely
wounded on board H.M.S. Illustrious by a gun breaking loose when at
target practice. He had emigrated to Tasmania in the seventies, and in
1877 had been appointed by the South Australian Government to explore the
country lying between the line and the Queensland border, a notice of
which occurs in the preceding pages.

The party, lightly equipped to be more effective, was absent from
Oodnadatta from July 24th until December 5th 1904, and in that time
accomplished much useful work in the face of great difficulties. On
account of the great heat, the expedition had to resort to travelling by
night and resting by day. The country was principally high sandy ridges,
some so steep that it was not easy to find crossing-places. They had to
sacrifice a lot of valuable stores, personal effects, and a valuable
collection of native curios, all chiefly on account of the shortness of
water.

By this date the whole of the central portion of Australia was known, and
the greater part of it mapped; while all the permanent