411 



here our real troubles began, for iu its course the creek 

 spreads out over low-lying flats miles in extent into which 

 the sandhills are pushed. It was impossible to traverse the 

 sandhills on the one hand and the bogs on the other, so that 

 we had to follow the contour of the foothills, often necessi- 

 tating a deviation of three or four miles, sometimes at right 

 angles to our compass direction, and then, heading off a tongue 

 of the bogland, beat back in the contrary direction. Progress 

 was varied by crossing large dry lakes, where the ground is 

 so "rotten," being full of depressions known as "crab holes," 

 that camel travel was very slow indeed, redeeming features 

 being the marvellous mirages produced by the unending vista 

 of heated sand, some fine cloud effects at sunrise and sunset, 

 and the knowledge that we could keep a compass direction. 

 On the 6th a feral cat was discovered in a roosting hollow 

 previously occupied by a delicate owl. Once again we struck 

 the sandhills, and as our guide penitently admitted that he 

 was lost, we decided to make Cuttapirie Corner if possible, 

 where the Cooper forms a great southern loop. 



Our route now lay across saltbush country, and, being 

 short of water and travel-worn, we were glad to see the big 

 timber again, and thankful when on the 8th we reached our 

 immediate objective (pi. xxv., fig. 2), especially as we had 

 experienced the worst sandstorm yet encountered. Soon after 

 starting in the morning, clouds of sand were seen rising from 

 the hills high into the air, and before long the whole horizon 

 was blotted out, arid next we were caught in the driving, 

 biting sand. As, however, we were travelling between 

 ranges of two sandhills, and perhaps a couple of miles from 

 the windward hills, we escaped the full intensity of the storm, 

 and our motor goggles, worn primarily as a defence against 

 sun-glare, greatly protected our eyes. Reluctantly leaving 

 the most beautiful of the few pretty spots seen during the 

 whole journey, we were soon among the sandhills again, cross- 

 ing ridge after ridge, the continual climbing and descending 

 in the loose sand proving very tiring alike to man and camel, 

 and resulting not only in constantly breaking nose lines, but 

 in many thrown loads, the replacing of which wasted much 

 time. 



On October 9 we camped on the dry bed of Lake 

 Yarowinie, a narrow belt of low trees marking its flood limit. 

 The timber is so stunted that the nests of the Uroaetus audax, 

 the largest Eagle in the world, can almost be reached from 

 the ground (pi. xxvi., fig. 1). This evening we unsuccessfully 

 dug into a rabbit-warren for a distance of 50 feet in search 

 of a woma (a large snake), whose tracks were seen in the 

 burrows. Next day we entered an area where the sandhills 



