to the top of a sandhill, and then other sandhills
all round only were to be seen. The position of
this place I found to be in latitude 30 degrees 24’
10” and approximate longitude 131 degrees 46’.
On the 23rd of March Mr. Murray, Jimmy, and I, went
to the top of a sandhill overlooking the camp and had
a long confabulation with Jimmy—at least
Mr. Murray had, and he interpreted the old fellow’s
remarks to me. It appeared that he knew the country,
and some watering-places in it, for some distance to
the eastward, and on making a kind of map on the sand,
he put down several marks, which he called by the
following names, namely, Chimpering, Pylebung, Mowling,
Whitegin, and Wynbring; of these he said Pylebung and
Wynbring were the best waters. By his account
they all lay due east from hence, and they appeared
to be the most wonderful places in the world.
He said he had not visited any of these places since
he was a little boy with his mother, and it appeared
his mother was a widow and that these places belonged
to her country, but that she had subsequently become
the wife of a Fowler’s Bay native, who had taken
her and her little Jimmy away out of that part of the
country, therefore he had not been there since.
He said that Pylebung was a water that stood up high,
and that Cockata black fellows had made it with wooden
shovels. This account certainly excited my curiosity,
as I had never seen anything which could approximate
to Jimmy’s description; he also said it was
mucka pickaninny, only big one, which meant that it
was by no means a small water. Chimpering and
Whitegin, he said, were rock-holes, but Wynbring,
the farthest water he knew, according to his account
was something astounding. He said it was a mountain,
a waterhole, a lake, a spring, and a well, all in one,
and that it was distant about six sleeps from Youldeh;
this, according to our rendering, as Jimmy declared
also that it was mucka close up, only long way, we
considered to be about 120 miles. Beyond Wynbring
Jimmy knew nothing whatever of the country, and I
think he had a latent idea in his mind that there
really was nothing beyond it. The result of our
interview was, that I determined to send all the party
back to Fowler’s Bay, except one white man and
old Jimmy, also all the horses except three, and to
start with this small party and the camels to the
eastward on the following day. I selected Peter
Nicholls to accompany me. I found the boiling-point
of water at the camp was 211 degrees making its altitude
above the sea 509 feet. The sandhills were about
100 feet high on the average.
The two camels and the calf, were sent to me by Sir Thomas Elder, from Adelaide, while I was at Fowler’s Bay, by an Afghan named Saleh Mahomet, who returned to, and met me at, Beltana, by the ordinary way of travellers. There was only a riding-saddle for the cow, the bull having come bare-backed; I therefore had to invent a pack- or baggage-saddle for him, and I venture to assert that 999,999 people out of every