ACROSS THE McILWRAITH RANGE 539 



rhey probably had seen the bulk of the party leaving the camp 

 resterday, and thought that the two men left in charge were out, 

 ind had come to plunder. Love and Hamil fired at them, and 

 Dursued them as far as the gully. With characteristic Scottish 

 ang-froid, Love declared that he would have followed further 

 Dut for the johnny-cakes, which he had left on the fire, and which 

 ic could not afford to have burned. Arrived at the green knoll 

 Dn the further side of the creek, the natives shouted and danced, 

 especially one tall fellow, whose " fling " Love very much admired. 



We had just finished dinner, when the BLACKS again appeared 

 MI the opposite side of the gully. A tall native got on a green knoll 

 ibout 600 yards off, and shouted and defied us with indecent 

 gestures. Charlie and this champion harangued one another like 

 Sreek heroes. The substance of the miall oration was, according 

 :o Charlie (who must have gathered it from his gestures, for he 

 mderstood nothing of his speech), that Charlie might come over 

 ind join them, but as for the rest of us they had legions of friends 

 vho could come from all points of the compass and fall upon us. 

 Dnly the one man kept in view, but from time to time he turned 

 ind addressed a crowd on the crown of the knoll behind him, 

 ind was answered by them in a kind of chorus of encouragement. 



Crosbie, judging that the blacks would not have stayed and 

 ried to " bounce " us unless they were in considerable numbers 

 j.nd meant mischief, put an end to the conference by firing a long 

 hot at the spokesman, who dodged behind a tree with extraordinary 

 ; gility, I believe before the bullet passed him, and vanished. 



In the evening, to satisfy ourselves that the horses were safe 

 or the night, we visited the knoll and its neighbourhood. We 

 aw nothing of the blacks except the smoke of their camp fires 

 ;.bout 3 miles down Christmas Creek, where they were welcome 

 o stay as far as we were concerned. 



It rained heavily most of the night. 



December 31, 1879. Heavy rain all day and night ; the party 

 engaged in horse-shoeing, writing, mending harness and odd jobs. 



January I, 1880. Showery all day. 



January 2. We left Camp 17, and retraced our steps by Camps 

 6 and 15 (8 miles). The PEACH was scarcely swollen; but 

 CHRISTMAS CREEK was running strongly, so that we were almost 

 swim at the crossing, where there was only a shallow water-hole 



en we crossed before. From Camp 15 we skirted the range 

 north i mile, and north round to north-east one mile and a half) 

 ato a valley bearing E. 41' S. from BIRTHDAY MOUNT, and went 

 .p the valley for I mile to the north-east. We camped on the 

 2ft bank of a running creek of the fourth magnitude (BEETLE 

 .REEK), with scrubby banks, figs, palms and vines. (CAMP 18.) 



After we had camped, I ascended the hills on the right hand 

 f the valley to reconnoitre. I went up a scrubby spur to a hill 



