s (a practice common to some Australian
tribes), or whether it is their usual custom to leave the dead where they
die, I do not know. I know, however, that this body was subsequently
moved, not by the blacks, but by those snarling scavengers, the dingoes.

This finding of a corpse at the mouth of the only soak we had seen was
hardly encouraging; but still there was a large extent of rocks that we
had not yet visited. Shortly before sunset, as I stood on the summit of
the highest rock, I was astonished by the sight of some horses grazing in
a little valley beneath. I could hardly believe that I saw aright; it
seemed incredible that horsemen should have reached this drought-begirt
spot. Little time was wasted in idle speculation, and the appearance of
our camels soon proved the horses to be flesh and blood, and not mere
phantoms of the brain, unless indeed phantoms can snort and plunge!

The owner of the horses soon made his appearance, and, with reluctant
resignation, showed us the soak from which his horses were watered. He and
his mates, he said, were sinking for water in a likely spot some half-mile
away; in the meantime they used the soak, though it was evident it would
not last much longer. We must have water for our camels, and must use the
soak, I said, until their thirst was somewhat relieved, then in our turn
we would dig for soaks round the rocks. In the hottest time of the year
our poor patient beasts had been eight days without food, except of the
driest description, and eight days without water, struggling and kicking
in the salt-bogs. It was indeed a delight to quench their thirst at last.
All that night we worked without a minute's rest, digging, scraping, and
bailing, and secured enough to keep the camels going. For the next two
days we were engaged in sinking trial holes for soakages; no water,
however, rewarded our labours until the night of the second day, when we
struck a splendid supply, and for the time being our troubles were over.
Pitching a "fly" to keep off the sun's rays in the daytime, we were
content to do nothing but rest for the whole of the next day. Here again I
was fortunate in shooting an emu, a welcome addition to our provisions.

McIlwraith and his mates (the owners of the horses) had also struck a good
supply. From them we got the news which we already suspected that a new
find of gold had been made not five miles from the rocks. An apparently
rich find too! How strangely things turn