the lake disappeared.  I am of opinion, therefore, that large lakes will some day be found to lie to the North-East of Mount Webb.  Had we not been so pressed for time I should have made a flying trip in this direction.  Mount Webb is flat-topped, isolated, rocky-sided, innocent of all vegetation, of sandstone capped with quartzite, standing out with imposing clearness some five hundred feet above a plain of spinifex and mulga scrubs.  From its summit numerous hills and bluffs can be seen; to the South spinifex plains and ridges; to the South-East a tabletop between two bluffs; to the West a low line of stony hills, beyond them a limitless sea of sandhills; to the North-West a broken range of peaks, and, far distant, a large hill swaying in the haze of heat.

From the foot of the hill a hunting-fire was seen close by.  “Gabbi, gabbi,” said the dwarf, greatly excited; and when we turned towards it “Yo-yo-yo” in approval.  As we silently approached we saw two old hags flitting about, as nimbly as their aged limbs would allow, in the blazing spinifex—­now picking up a dead lizard, and now poking about with their yam-sticks as if in search of some rat which had been roasted in his burrow.  It is impossible to describe the look of terrific awe on the faces of these quaint savages.  Let us imagine our own feelings on being, without warning, confronted by a caravan of strange prehistoric monsters; imagine an Easter holiday tripper surrounded by the fearful beasts at the Crystal Palace suddenly brought to life!  What piercing shrieks they gave forth, as, leaving their hunting implements, they raced away, to drop, all at once, behind a low bush, where, like the ostrich, they hid their heads, and so hoped to escape detection.

It was almost impossible to gain the confidence of the gins:  old ladies seem so very suspicious.  The dwarf somewhat reassured them, and after much difficulty one was persuaded to show their camp—­and such a camp!—­perched up in the rocks on a little plot of sand, close by a miniature watercourse, and in this a small native well, so rock-bound as to preclude further opening out.  And yet for this miserable affair we were glad to offer up thanks, for the sake of the ponies.  What labour for a few gallons of water, not so much as we use in our baths every morning in civilised countries!  But no man could stand idly by and watch the mute longing of his faithful horses.  So freeing the dwarf and the old gin, a fit pair, we set to work.  All that afternoon and all through the night we dug and hauled and scraped, and by morning had the horses watered and twenty gallons to boot.  There had been eight or nine blacks at this camp, who, on their return from hunting in the evening, watched our proceedings with intense annoyance.  They stopped about one hundred yards away, and, yelling and shrieking, brandished their spears in a most warlike manner.