FOURTH EXPLORATION, 1880 173 



that we were not a trader. After we had all retired to sleep, we 

 heard a great confusion amongst the horses and Davie and I 

 rushed out to see what was wrong, but saw no one. In the morn- 

 ing we were afraid that our horses would have been stolen but 

 found them where we had left them the night before. 



Next day, being Saturday, we travelled north and, late in 

 the afternoon, found that there was no sign of water, although 

 there were numbers of dry creeks on each line of travel. I sent 

 Davie on horseback to ride around and he rode a long time before 

 he signalled that he had found water. Our mode of signalling 

 was very simple. If we were looking for water, and found it, we 

 simply lay down and rose again and lay down the second time, or 

 just dismounted and did the same. It being Saturday, we camped 

 on the margin of a creek and found water in a deep hole. On 

 Sunday, we examined the country around there and found that 

 it was literally "bad lands." The hills were all clay and the 

 creeks were all with sand in the bottoms. Sunday night, there 

 came up a great thunder-storm and an immense rainfall took 

 place, which lasted until late in the afternoon of Monday. We 

 were now surrounded by water ; the creeks were overflowing their 

 banks and the ground was just liquid mud as far as there was no 

 sward. Later in the day, we reached a creek that had to be crossed 

 and Davie, as usual, tried it and immediately he sank down as it 

 was a quicksand. However, he managed to cross it on his hands 

 and knees. As I mentioned before, I carried a hatchet and a 

 spade always with me and, as there were a large number of tall, 

 slim, willow bushes on the borders of the creek, we cut them down 

 and made a first class bridge over the sand and in less time than 

 an hour we were across and all our carts as well. The following 

 extract is from my work, "The Great North West." 



"In August, 1880, we reached the dry bed of a creek on the 

 north side of the Cypress Hills and, after examining it for miles, 

 found it partly impassable. The banks of the creek were per- 

 pendicular and the bed a quicksand. So soft was the sand that 

 the man who tried it had to cross on his hands and knees. A brief 

 consultation was held and, while one party cut down the willows 

 to bridge the quicksand, another dug down the banks. In an 



