CHAPTER XI 



THE HEAD OF THE AUSTRALIAN BIGHT 



There is one portion of the Australian continent of which 

 I know but very little, though for many years I have been 

 diligently seeking information about it. Perhaps my 

 interest in this portion of the country rests largely on the 

 fact that it is the least known of all the districts of our 

 great land. I mean the central region, which, commencing 

 about the head of the great Australian Bight, stretches in 

 an immense expanse to the heart of the continent. A 

 good deal of this country is still a terra incognita. On one 

 occasion, while I was still little more than a youth, I made 

 great, but unsuccessful, efforts to gain permission to join a 

 certain exploring party which traversed a large portion of 

 the west. Afterwards I was a member of several prospect- 

 ing parties which penetrated far inland, but of that more 

 in future chapters. 



As far back as 1888 I wished to spend a month or two 

 in the desert on the Australian Bight. The difficulties in 

 the way of my gratifying this wish were great. The 

 country in question is entirely unsettled : there is not a 

 single port, or even house, for a distance of several 

 hundred miles, one coastguard station and depot excepted, 

 and the mere proposal that I should attempt to land on 

 this desolate coast was sufficient to induce several persons, 

 including my own father, to question whether I was per- 

 fectly sane. But I was not to be turned from my purpose. 

 Finding it impossible to reach the head of the Bight by 

 any ordinary channel, I purchased a small cutter-yacht, 

 the Swan, fitted her out at my own expense, and with a 



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