ABORIGINAL DRAWINGS 193 



great deal of time must be devoted to this amusement, for 

 the number of delineations seen during this short journey 

 was very great, and none of them could be of great age. 

 The proof of this was furnished by the state of many of the 

 drawings, which showed that the action of the weather was 

 very destructive to them, and it is probable that they are 

 completely obliterated by rain and lichens within a period 

 of ten or twelve years. 



Beyond the cliffs were several sand-ridges covered with 

 spinifex and scattered thorn-bushes. The soil was poor, 

 with here and there a strip of good land, which seemed to 

 crop up from a deep-lying bed of vegetable mould ; at least 

 I could not otherwise account for its presence amid so 

 much aridity. Several river-beds crossed this plain, all of 

 them dry, but with water in the mud a few feet below the 

 surface. These beds had reeds growing thickly right 

 across them, intermingled with a few tea- trees and bushes. 

 So it is reasonable to suppose that there is never water 

 enough in them to drown this vegetation. I call them 

 river-beds, but they were mere brooks at best. 



On the 1 2th we crossed a plain which was covered 

 with " everlasting flowers," some white, some yellow ; and 

 on the 13th we came upon a herd of twenty wild cattle, 

 the descendants of escaped animals. One of the bulls 

 made a determined charge upon us, and paid the penalty 

 of his rashness. A plump-looking cow was also shot ; so 

 we fared sumptuously that evening. 



The next day two stock-riders were met. They were 

 looking for stray cattle, and had a black tracker with them. 

 From them we learned that we were forty or fifty miles 

 further north than we had imagined, and we therefore 

 turned more to the south-west. They reported Port Grey 

 to be a hundred and twenty miles off — nearly twice the 

 distance we had supposed it to be. They gave us direc- 

 tions for finding the nearest outlying station ; and that we 

 reached the same night, receiving a warm welcome. But 

 it was a small hut, with but a man, his wife, and two sons 

 for sole occupants ; and I felt that our presence would be 

 a burden to them ; so after a night's rest we proceeded 



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