That night we were again forced to camp on a barren spot, and again our animals wandered far afield.  Unless absolutely necessary, I have a great objection to tying them up at nights, for then they are sure beyond question of getting nothing to eat; whereas wandering they may find a patch of herbage or bushes.  That night we saw the fire of a native camp and heard distant screams.  In the morning a mob of blacks passed our camp all unaware of our presence; Breaden and Warri were hunting the camels and I the horses.  As soon as I brought them in we followed and stopped some of the natives, and they returned with us to camp and presently decoyed others who were passing.

There was nothing remarkable about these savages except that they were tall and well-made and fairly friendly.  One had the skin disease from which we had noticed others suffering.  An old man, and a young, rather handsome, buck came with us and went ahead as guides.  Their camp had been, as is the rule, on the top of a sand-ridge—­chosen, no doubt, as a position suitable for watching the approach of others.  A four-mile stage brought us to a nice little oasis—­a small area of grass, surrounded by ti-trees, enclosed by two sand-ridges.  In the centre of the grass three good soaks, in black, sandy soil, yielded sufficient for all our needs at the expenditure of but little labour.  The horses appreciated the change, and unless we had given them water in instalments would have assuredly burst themselves.  They drank in all sixteen gallons apiece!  Seeing that they had never been in anything but good country all their lives, and that now we had suddenly come out of it into the howling waste, they showed satisfactory endurance, having been eighty hours with only six gallons of water each during that time.  What English thoroughbred could have done this?

The next day Breaden and I rode up to Mount Elphinstone, which we found to be formed of three great rocky shoulders of sandstone capped with quartzite, almost bare, and stony on the top, with sheer faces one hundred feet high on the West side and a gradual slope to the East, where high sand-ridges run right up to the foot.  From the summit a high tableland [Probably Musgrave Range (Warburton)] and range can be seen to the North, to the East a bluff-ended tableland, [Probably Philipson Range (Warburton)] but the horizon from South-East to South-West was a dead level.

One mile due West of the highest point we found a native well in a sandy gutter, and about 150 yards from it, to the East, a high wall of bare rock as regular as if it had been built.  This wall, seen edge-on from the North-West, from which point Breaden sighted it when after the camels, appears like a chimney-stack.