That night they camped not far off, and, as on every other occasion on which we invaded their homes, I consider we owed our immunity from attack to the fact that work on the well entailed one or other of the party being up all through the night, thus acting as a watch.  Had they known their power they might have made things most unpleasant by spearing our camels.  Fortunately it is only those natives who have come within the civilising influence of the white man, that learn such little acts of courtesy.  It is noticeable that amongst the treasures in this camp were a great quantity of “letter-sticks,” which is evidence that the carvings on letter-sticks cannot be written messages, unless this camp was a desert post-office!  If, however, the sticks are tokens, as I suppose, then one of this tribe may be a craftsman who carves distinctive symbols on each stick to order, and who had lately received a number of commissions for such sticks.  It seems likely that one man or tribe should have a special aptitude for manufacturing message-sticks, whilst others perhaps make a speciality of hair-string or spears.  Or again it may be that the number of sticks, certainly two dozen, denote orders from far-off tribes, who wish to barter such articles as pearl-shells for perhaps spinifex-gum of a superfine quality. (I have noticed that the spinifex growing on the sandstone hills, particularly on the Stansmore Range, exudes a great deal more resin than that growing on the sand.) This bartering of goods is very remarkable, and here we found pearl oyster-shells which must have passed from tribe to tribe for at least five hundred miles; pieces of glass, carefully protected by covers of woven feathers and opossum-string; the red beans which are found in Kimberley, and, as Warri tells me, in the MacDonnell Ranges of Central Australia; a stone tomahawk-head, a dark green stone (serpentine); and besides, numerous sporrans of rats’ tails, feathers, nose bones, red ochre, and a piece of the top part of a human skull polished and slung on a string.  Certainly for its size this was the best appointed tribe we had seen.

The position of this well, a very poor one, is lat. 22 degrees 57 minutes, long. 128 degrees 20 minutes—­one mile West of Mount Webb.

Some good grass grows in the mulga scrubs which are dotted over the plain surrounding the hill.  Nine miles south of the Mount, sand-ridges, East and West as usual, are again met with; from the crest of one we saw the last of Mount Webb, twenty-two miles distant.  We now hourly expected to get a view of Lake Macdonald, a large dry salt lake discovered by Tietkens in 1889.  Tietkens was Giles’s right-hand man in all, or nearly all, his journeys—­a man whose great services to his country have never been acknowledged, because, I suppose, as second in command his name seldom appeared in the accounts of his leader’s travels, and yet he shared his dangers and troubles, stood by him in many tight corners, helped him no doubt