its bearing from a high, long-pointed hill abruptly
ending to the west, which I named Mount Phillips.
This is a very conspicuous mount in this region, being,
like many of the others named on this line, detached
to allow watercourses to pass northwards, and yet
forming a part of the long northern wall, of which
the Petermann Range is formed. This mount can
be distinctly seen from Mount Olga, although it is
seventy miles away, and from whence it bears 4 degrees
north of west. The water gorge at Winter’s
Glen bears west from the highest point of Mount Phillips,
and four miles away. We were now again in the
territories of South Australia, having bid farewell
to her sister state, and turned our backs upon that
peculiar province of the sun, the last of austral lands
he shines upon. We next paid a visit to Glen
Robertson, of 15th March, as it was a convenient place
from which to make a straight line to the Sugar-loaf.
To reach it we had to make a circuitous line, under
the foot of the farthest east hill, where, it will
be remembered, we had been attacked during dinner-time.
We reached the glen early. There was yet another
detached hill in the northern line, which is the most
eastern of the Petermann Range. I named it Mount
McCulloch. It can also easily be distinguished
from Mount Olga. From Glen Robertson Mount McCulloch
bore 3 degrees east of north. We rested here a
day, during which several natives made their appearance
and lit signal fires for others. There is a great
difference between signal and hunting fires; we were
perfectly acquainted with both, as my reader may imagine.
One aboriginal fiend, of the Homo sapiens genus, while
we were sitting down sewing bags as usual, sneaked
so close upon us, down the rocks behind the camp,
that he could easily have touched or tomahawked—if
he had one—either of us, before he was discovered.
My little dog was sometimes too lazy to obey, when
a little distance off, the command to sit, or stand
up; in that case I used to send him a telegram, as
I called it—that is to say, throw a little
stone at him, and up he would sit immediately.
This sneak of a native was having a fine game with
us. Cocky was lying down near Mr. Tietkens, when
a stone came quietly and roused him, causing him to
sit up. Mr. Tietkens patted him, and he lay down
again. Immediately after another stone came,
and up sat Cocky. This aroused Mr. Tietkens’s
curiosity, as he didn’t hear me speak to the
dog, and he said, “Did you send Cocky a telegram?”
I said, “No.” “Well then,”
said he, “somebody did twice: did you,
Jimmy?” “No.” “Oh!”
I exclaimed, “it’s those blacks!”
We jumped up and looked at the low rocks behind us,
where we saw about half-a-dozen sidling slowly away
behind them. Jimmy ran on top, but they had all
mysteriously disappeared. We kept a sharp look
out after this, and fired a rifle off two or three
times, when we heard some groans and yells in front
of us up the creek gorge.