PRESIDENTS ADDRESS—SECTION E. 107 
often may pass by the lifegiving element. This is forcibly 
exemplified in the journey of the Hon. David Carnegie, who 
would often have been at fault but for his native guides, to 
whom he was indebted for the discovery of Helena and Empress 
Springs. 
Speaking of the former he says in his diary :—‘ This small 
basin, on a surface outcrop of limestone, is surrounded by a 
little oasis not more that 400 yards wide. Outside this welcome 
spot, away to the horizon on all sides stretches the desolate 
sea of sand ridges.” He stayed here several days, and the 
water was found to rise rapidly after his camels had watered. 
The Empress Spring in 8. lat. 26 deg. 47 min, E. 
long. 126 deg. 30 min., has not even the small oasis extent 
of a few hundred yards. There is absolutely no feature at 
all by which to find it; the sandhills encompass it upon 
every side; it is simply a small opening in the surface 
slab of limestone. Creeping through this opening, and 
making use of a sapling that is used by the blacks for 
purposes of egress and ingress, you find yourself in a large 
cave, 40 ft. to 50 ft. across, quite dark except for the feeble 
light from the aperture through which you came, and 15 
ft. from the surface on the floor of this cave there is a deep 
well, speaking from memory, about 15 ft deep. It is not quite 
perpendicular; and at the bottom of this hole the water 
-was found. It was quite dark, but by working with candles, 
and keeping a small fire alight on the floor of the cave, a bucket 
was passed from man to man under ground, and lifted to the 
surface with a rope, and given to the camels by the man on 
top. On the floor of the cave the usual debris of a blacks’ camp 
were found. The fire lighted there is probably for the purpose 
of assisting the one who was going down the shaft, but to ap- 
pease a sharp appetite small game would no doubt be thrown on 
the fire for immediate consumption. Here there is a known 
very valuable permanent water, surrounded by sandhills on 
every side; not a tree or a mark cf any kind by which to find 
it. Carnegie certainly did put up two mulga poles, upon which 
the initials of the party were cut, but the blacks will most 
likely remove or destroy these. Very careful observations for 
latitude were taken to fix the position of this desert treasure, 
the mean taken of many observations, but Carnegie almost 
despairs of its ever being found without a guide, for with one 
sandhill intervening it would be passed by. The native name 
of the place was obtained from the black, but as a rule not 
much reliance can be placed on their statements. 
My own recollection of the circumstances under which Vic- 
toria Spring was found, you can imagine, are very vivid. After 
a march of 300 miles without finding any water, one begins to 
doubt whether there is any left anywhere. We found no water 
