OL' nORN EXPKDITION NARRATIVE 



tobacco plant, NicofitDuiiii sitaveolois. They citlier simply roll a few of the leaves 

 together and then suck or chew them, or elsc^ cut the leaves uj) finely and inix: 

 them with ash obtained from burning the leaves and twigs f)f a bush, prefer^ibly 

 a Cassia. The leaves and ash are made up into little plugs, which are held when 

 sucked so as just to protrude through the lips. The chewed mass when not in u.<^e 

 is tucked in safely an)ongst the well-greased ringlets. Ff you put your hand up to 

 your month and pretend to suck something a black fellow will at once Icnow what 

 yon mean, and will in all friendliness (ifter you liis well-use(l packet of tobacco 

 leaves or Ins "plug" for a "chew." 



The chief use of the Pituri plant in this neighbourhood (a])ait from its value 

 as an article of barter) seems to be that of making a, decoction for the pui'jiose of 

 stupefying and then catching the emu. The leaves are pounded in water and the 

 decoction is placed in a wooden vessel where the emu is lilcely to come across it, 

 or else a small pool or a fenced-off portion of a larger one is used for the purpose. 

 After drinking it up the animal becomes so stupefied that it falls an easy victim 

 to the blackfellow's spear. 



Just to the south of Winnall's Ridge lies a small flat in which, surrounded by 

 tea-tree, is a small native well, known to the white man as Kamaran's Well and to 

 the blacks as Unterpata. The accidental discovery of this small water supply by 

 Kamaran, one of Gosse's men, was the means of enabling the latter to cross this 

 otherwi.se waterless track. It lies right amongst the sandhills where the existences 

 of a spring would never be expected. 



The well is evidently the remains of a broken down mound spring and has 

 the form of a hole some fourteen feet deep and perhaps ten feet across at the top, 

 the walls slanting steeply down until at the l)ottom, where lies a pool of water, it 

 is not more than four or five feet across. It is formed in a deposit of Travertine, 

 the remnant of what was once a mound with a spring at the top ; tin; gradual 

 desiccation of the Amadeus basin has gone o!i until now the underground supply 

 is so small that the water in the spring floes not reach the surf.-i.ce. With 

 continued desiccation the water will gradually disappear altogether. 



We approached it in the hope of finding a supply for ourselves and still more; 

 one for the horses, but to the disappointment of man and beast alike we found it 

 simply stinking with the bodies of five dead dingoes who had ventured into it in 

 search of water and had evidently been too weak to clamber out. All t.h.it we 

 could do was to drag out the decomposing carcases in the hopes that it would be a 

 little better on our return. 



