50 IIUKN KXPEDITION — NAliKATIVE. 



In colour it is ii p;ilo cream-yellow, except just the upper part where the 

 oxidation of iron contained in tlie rock has tinted it lirii;lit icd, and standing' out 

 aL;ainst the Idue sky aljove the yellow sandhills and dull i;reen scruh it forms a 

 striking feature in the otherwise monotonous landscape. 



The Idacks have a rather curious myth* to account for the origin of the pillar. 

 They say that in what they call the Alchcringa, (oi' as Mv. (lillen appropriately 

 renders it the "dream times"), a certain noted wari'ior Journeyed to the ea.st and 

 killing with his l)ig stone knife all the men, he seized the wouien and hrought 

 them hack with him to his own country. Camping for the night on this spot, lu^ 

 and the women wei'c tiansfornuHl into stone, and it is his body which now foi'ius 

 the pillar, whilst the women were fashioned into the fantastic peaks grouped 

 together to form what is now known as Castle Hill, a mile away to the north 

 (Plate 4). 



After photograpliing we returned late in the evening to our camj) hy the 

 Finke, r'eady to start away in the morning to follow up the ri\er as it came down 

 fi'om the James Range in the north-west. 



Close to our camp there was a fail- sized water-hole in tlie sandy hed of the 

 river in wdnch we secured a few fish. The water apparently remained here owing 

 to the deposition of a thin layer of clayey material on the sanil which prevented it 

 from sinking in as it liad done elsewhere, and the tish were simply existing until, 

 in a very short time, they must perish wdieu the water dried u}>. Along the course 

 of the Finke as it meanders ovei- the countiy lietween the James llange and its 

 termination somewhere amongst the sandhills to the noith of Lake Eyre — for only 

 in exceptionally wet seasons can its waters reach the lake — water-holes are met 

 with at intervals, but very few indeed, if any of them, can l)e regarded as 

 permanent, and they only last for a \'arying length of r,inie after the I'ain season. 



When there is a heavy rainfall then the floods come down th(^ channels and, 

 in favourable spots, the water will lie on the surface while elsewhere it sinks down 

 into the sandy bed. The gathering ground lies far away amongst the ranges up 

 country so that not infrequently a flood will occur at Crown Point or Idracowra, 

 without there having been any rain in these parts, and when the; water does come 

 down the river channels it does so with great force and suddenness. ]>ut little 

 wa,i-inng is given of its approach, though, at times, the blacks send on the news of 

 an a,ppi-oaching flood so that especially during the rainy months up country, that 

 is in sunnner time, it is not I'cally safe to camp in the sandy bed of a river however 



* 1 am imlcbtci) to Mr. I'\ .1. (Jillrn for tlii'; iiilornrition. 



