We still had the little dog. during our stay at the Charlotte I inquired of a number of the natives for information concerning the region beyond, to the west and north-west.  They often used the words “Larapinta and plenty black fellow.”  Of the country to the west they seemed to know more, but it was very difficult to get positive statements.  The gist of their information was that there were large waters, high mountains, and plenty, plenty, wild black fellow; they said the wild blacks were very big and fat, and had hair growing, as some said, all down their backs; while others asserted that the hair grew all over their bodies, and that they eat pickaninnies, and sometimes came eastward and killed any of the members of the Charlotte tribe that they could find, and carried off all the women they could catch.  On the 12th we departed, and my intended starting point being Chambers’ Pillar, upon the Finke River, I proceeded up the telegraph road as far as the crossing place of the above-named watercourse, which was sixty miles by the road.

(Illustration:  Chambers’ pillar.)

In the evening of the day we encamped there, a Government party, under the charge of Mr. McMinn, surveyor, and accompanied by Mr. Harley Bacon, a son of Lady Charlotte Bacon, arrived from the north, and we had their company at the camp.  Close to this crossing-place a large tributary joins the Finke near the foot of Mount Humphries.  On the following day Mr. McMinn, Mr. Bacon, and I rode up its channel, and at about twelve miles we found a water-hole and returned.  The country consisted chiefly of open sandhills well grassed.  I mentioned previously that from Port Augusta, northwards and north-westwards, the whole region consists of an open stony plateau, upon which mountain ranges stand at various distances; through and from these, a number of watercourses run, and, on a section of this plateau, nearly 200 miles in extent, the curious mound-springs exist.  This formation, mostly of limestone, ceases at, or immediately before reaching, the Finke, and then a formation of heavy red sandhills begins.  Next day our friends departed for the Charlotte, after making me several presents.  From Mr. McMinn I obtained the course and distance of the pillar from our camp, and travelling on the course given, we crossed the Finke three times, as it wound about so snake-like across the country.  On the 22nd we encamped upon it, having the pillar in full view.

(Illustration:  The Moloch horridus.)

The appearance of this feature I should imagine to be unique.  For a detailed account of it my reader must consult Stuart’s report.  Approaching the pillar from the south, the traveller must pass over a series of red sandhills, covered with some scrubs, and clothed near the ground with that abominable vegetable production, the so-called spinifex or porcupine grass—­botanically, the Triodia, or Festuca irritans.  The timber on the sandhills near the