ottom that the water could only be obtained
by stretching out a stick at arm's length, on which was lashed a small
saucepan. It soon became clear that, labour as we would, the hole would
yield but little, so, leaving the rest to work, I took Warri, and
continued the search for the natives from the point where Breaden had
left their tracks. After a long, tedious day of tracking, we found
ourselves back at our own camp. The natives--two bucks, two gins, and
three picaninnies--travelled North to a dry well, and there split, the
men going one way and the rest another. We chose the bucks to follow, and
presently the rest joined in, and the whole family swung round until
close to our camp. We could, by their tracks, see where they had herded
together in fear under a beefwood tree not one hundred yards from us.
Just before sunset we again set forth, taking Czar and Satan as
riding-camels, and were lucky in picking up tracks going in a fresh
direction before night fell.

We camped on the tracks, and ran them in the morning, noticing two
interesting things on the way: the first, several wooden sticks on which
were skewered dried fruits, not unlike gooseberries; these were hidden in
a bush, and are remarkable, for they not only show that the natives have
some forethought, but that they trade in edible goods as well as in
weapons and ornaments. These fruits are from the SOLANUM SODOMEUM, and
were only seen by us near the Sturt Creek (three hundred miles away). The
second, little heaps of the roots of a tree (known to me only as
pine-mulga [Probably a "Hakea."]) stacked together, which had been sucked
for water; we tried some, but without result, and the tree the natives
had made use of did not seem to be different from others of its kind.
This showed us, too, that they must be dry, and probably had had no water
since our arrival at their well. About midday we rode right on to their
camp without warning. Again the scrub befriended them, but in spite of
this I could have got ahead of them on Satan had his nose-line not
snapped. Determined not to be baulked, I jumped down and gave chase, old
Czar lumbering along behind, and Warri shouting with glee and excitement,
"Chase 'em--we catch em," as if we were going through all this trouble
for pleasure. Happy Warri! he never seemed to see gravity in anything. It
is almost incredible how quickly and completely a black-fellow can
disappear; as if in a moment the whole family was out of sight.