The Explorers of Australia and their Life-workFavenc, Ernest
History
The Explorers of Australia and their Life-work
Favenc, Ernest
Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Explorers
For the next few days the party were dependent for water on occasional
springs and scanty clay-pans. On the 27th, when following down a creek,
they suddenly came upon a fine spring, apparently permanent, which is
described by Forrest in his journal as one of the best he had ever seen,
both the grass and other herbage around being of fine quality. This place
he named Windich Springs, after Tommy Windich, one of the blacks who had
now been with Forrest on three expeditions. To the north-west was a fine
range of hills, which he named the Carnarvon Range. On leaving this
oasis, the explorers found themselves in less attractive country;
spinifex and sand became more frequent features of the landscape, and the
occasional water-supply became precarious.
On the 2nd of June, Forrest discovered the spring which aided them so
greatly in their efforts to cross. This he called Weld Springs, and he
describes it as unlimited in supply, clear, fresh, and extending down its
gully for over twenty chains. At this relief camp they halted in order to
rest the horses.
On the 8th Forrest started on a scouting expedition ahead, taking only a
black boy with him. He fully anticipated finding water, for as yet they
had not reached a waterless region, and he left instructions for the rest
to follow in his tracks in a day's time. He was unfortunate in his
selection of a course, for it led them for more than twenty miles over
undulating sand-ridges, without a sight of any indication of the presence
of water. At daybreak, from the top of a low stony rise, he obtained an
extensive outlook. Far as he could see to the north and east, nothing was
visible but the level unending spinifex; not a watercourse or a hill in
sight. Evidently they were trespassing on the edge of the central desert.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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