depending as we did upon
rock-holes and native wells (which at any time may be found dry), and
these yielded an only just sufficient quantity to keep no more than nine
camels from dying for want of a drink--every well that we found, with the
exception of one or two, was drained and left empty. Indeed on our two
journeys there are only two watering-places on which I should care to
depend, viz., the Empress Spring and Helena Spring. Throughout our journey
we never once found water by chance--though chance took us to more than
one dry hole--but found it only by systematic and patient work, involving
many scores of miles of tracking, the capture of the wild aboriginals, and
endless hours of manual labour. Without having resorted to these
expedients I have no hesitation in saying that neither we nor the camels
would be living today, for though without having done so, other parties
have crossed as great an extent of arid country, it must be remembered
that our journey was accomplished through infinitely worse country, and
with a party exactly half as large as the smallest of the previous
expeditions across the interior. Where, with a large number of camels, it
would be possible to carry a great quantity of water and do long stages,
using the water for camels as well as men, with a small number such
tactics as going straight ahead, and trusting to luck, could only end in
disaster.

It has been my fate, in all my exploration work, to find none but useless
country, though when merely prospecting on the goldfields I have been
more fortunate. So far, therefore, as being of benefit to mankind, my
work has had no better result than to demonstrate to others, that part of
the interior that may best be avoided. No mountain ranges, no rivers, no
lakes, no pastoral lands, nor mineral districts has it brought to light;
where the country was previously unknown it has proved only its
nakedness; nevertheless I do not regret one penny of the cost or one
minute of the troubles and labours entailed by it. Nor, I am confident,
do my companions repine because they wasted so many months of their lives
in such a howling wilderness. May good fortune attend them wherever they
go; for they were brave and true men, and to them I once more express my
feelings of thanks and gratitude for their untiring energy and help
through all our journeyings. I verily believe that so large an extent of
country, good or bad, has never been travelled through by a more c