BY FRANK HANN. 31 



some patches of splendid country. Leaving camp, according to 

 my usual custom, I went out to look for tracks, and found a 

 splendid sandy stretch between two high ranges, where I thought I 

 was going to get through, but a spring blocked me. However,. 

 I managed it, partly, and in spite of the long reeds. 

 I had to lead my horses, and as I went along I burnt a track 

 to make my return easier. Then my mare got bogged, and the 

 grass was over my head, and I fully expected she and I were 

 going to be burnt to death, and would have been had there been 

 any wind, as the flames were as high as 20 feet, but by great 

 exertion I got her out on the burnt land. I consider I was in a 

 very dangerous position on that occasion. After all, I found I 

 could not get through, so I returned to camp, got a fresh horse, 

 and tried another place, which also proved quite impassable. 

 There Avas nothing left but to go back and try a place 

 I saw from a hill out towards the east. I intended to find 

 a way to the sea if it was at all possible, for some 

 day this will turn out a grand country. It will grow 

 anything, I believe. We were then nearly out of flour, 

 and had neither sugar nor beef, and could find nothing to- 

 shoot. The horses were in a fearful state, and things wore a 

 very unpleasant appearance. Still, I had to find a way out, so I 

 had all the horses put over the creek, which was a most trouble- 

 some job. I went ahead, with the pack following :ne. At 

 sundown I camped, and whilst making the camp fire I heard the 

 wild blacks close by, so I went over a low ridge 300 yards away, 

 and there saw a great mob camped. I got right on to them 

 before they saw me, when they all bolted, some catching up their 

 spears. I got some fine spear heads in that camp. When the 

 packs came up I moved hal£-a-mile back, and camped on the 

 open, where I thought we should be safe. I should state that I 

 left a tomahawk and some other things in the blacks' camp in 

 place of the spear heads I had taken. There are two running- 

 creeks here, and the range I have named the Artesian Range, a& 

 it is so full of water. We had now only four days' flour rations 

 left, and the horses were in a woeful plight owing to the want of 

 shoes. The blacks we saw here are not nearly so modest as those 

 we saw in the desert east of the Oakover ; they could not 

 possibly be wilder, but the gins all had a covering about 3 inches 

 by 3 inches, made of booty's wool, and the tie round their bodies 

 was made of gins' hair. The former had nothing whatever in their 

 camps which had been got from the whites. Their knives and 

 tomahawks were all of stone. But here the blacks use na 



