APPEARANCE OF THE CLIFFS 117 



scarcely larger than a man-o'-war's barge, and as it was 

 necessary to obtain it at once, Martin returned to the 

 vessel to fetch tools and another man, while I endeavoured 

 to walk a little way inland. I got about half a mile, and then 

 found my way barred by a dense thicket of thorn bushes 

 intermingled with a shurb of trailing habit, which formed 

 such a labyrinth of roots over the ground that walking was 

 impossible. Here I shot three or four quails, which, with 

 a small snake, were the only things with life I saw. 

 Flowers too, which are rarely altogether absent from the 

 Australian forests and scrub lands, were here scarcely 

 to be seen. The most conspicuous was a small bine 

 which crept over the bushes, covering some of them with 

 a scanty show of bright little white blossoms. 



When Martin and Snell came up we commenced 

 digging without loss of time. There was plenty of water 

 at a depth of nine feet, but it was brackish, and only 

 urgent need induced us to be at the great trouble of 

 carrying a few gallons of it down to the boat. The 

 amount of labour entailed in this work may be inferred 

 from the fact that it took us more than two hours to get 

 each four-gallon keg down the ravine to the beach, then 

 the kegs had to be taken, two at a time, by one man in 

 the skiff to the cutter. 



There was no sign of water-wear anywhere on the 

 cliffs. On first sighting the ravine I had hoped to find it 

 the embouchure of a stream of some sort ; but I do not 

 think that water ever found its way down the gully — in 

 any great quantity at any rate. Above there was no sign 

 of a water-course ; but a few gutter-like ruts in the soil 

 might have been formed by heavy rains. While we were 

 off this coast no rain fell ; and it is probable that a few 

 tempestuous showers annually form the only moisture 

 this desolate land ever enjoys. Judging from my experi- 

 ence in other desert districts of the continent, I think 

 that the rainfall here is probably greater than the appear- 

 ance of the country would lead a casual observer to think ; 

 but as it falls in sudden showers, with long and uncertain 

 intervals between them, and is quickly soaked up by the 



