HORN KXPEDITION — NARRATIVE. 



However, tlioir powci-s oi cnduKince, despite theif vicious disposition, rcudci- 

 tlieiii invaluable in diy countries such as the interior of Australia. They will feed 

 on thorny desert plants which notliing else will eat, and can, when trained, go for 

 days together without driidcing — the longest recoril in Australia being, I believe, 

 the 24 days' waterless march on the recent Elder Expedition. Such abstinence as 

 this must, however, cause considerable suffering to the animals. 



However, to n^turn to our Expedition. Leaving Adelaide, we went by train 

 iov GOO miles to Oodnadatt.-i., tlie most northern point on the southern part of tlie 

 projected trans-continental railway. Mr. Winnecke had precedc^d us to super- 

 intend arrangements, and we found the camels camped some little distance 

 outsidt! the township in the midst of a dry, bare plain, close to a small muddy 

 waterhole on the Neale Creek. 



Mr. WiiHiecke had evidently been having a busy time. Stores of all kinds 

 and collecting material were ready, and next morning the camel train moved out 

 of camp and took the track northwards along the overland telegraph line towards 

 Charlotte Waters. 



We had altogether some twenty-five camels and two horses, each niem))er of 

 the scientific staflf having his own riding camel, the remainder being loaded with 

 various weights according to their carrying capacity, the heaviest load weighing 

 between seven and eight hundred pounds. 



Perhaps the most curious part of the whole caravan was a buggy drawn by a 

 pair of camels. This was only taken over the liist two hundred and fifty miles of 

 our journey, when we were travelling along the track by the telegraph line as far 

 north as Crown Point, where we were not sorry to leave it behind. Out in the 

 bush it would have been impossible for it to have travelled, and even along the 

 rough track, where travelling was comparatively easy, it was not exactly an 

 unmixed blessing when rough creek-beds had to be crossed. In the illustration 

 (Plate; 1) the camels are represented as sitting down in the position in which they 

 had just Ijecn harnessed; when standing up they naturally looked very ungainly 

 and far too liig in comparison to the size of the Ijuggy. Though in some parts of 

 xVustralia, such as the West, camels are now regularly used for this purpose, they 

 seem to be nuich more fitted for carrying Inirdens than to serve as draught-animals. 



All the camels used were the single-humped ones, and the saddles are so 

 made that they are kept in place partly by the iiump itself, partly l)y girths. A 

 loading camel will carry a big box on either side and another package on the top. 

 Everything, of course, is fastened on while the camel is sitting down, the beast 



