out of the surrounding plain; all around are dozens of these peculiar
mounds. The Messrs. Hogarth and Warren, who own the sheep and cattle
station, have springs with a sufficiently strong flow of water to
spout their wool at shearing time. The next telegraph station beyond
the Strangways is the Peake, distant 100 miles. About twenty miles
northward, or rather north-westward, from the Peake the mound-springs
cease, and the country is watered by large pools in stony watercourses
and creek beds. These pools are generally no more than twelve to
fifteen miles apart. The waters in times of flood run into Lake Eyre,
which receives the Cooper and all the flood waters of West and
South-western Queensland, and all the drainage from the hundred
watercourses of Central South Australia. The chief among the latter is
the huge artery, the Finke, from the north-west.

The Charlotte Waters Station, named after Lady Charlotte Bacon, the
Ianthe of Byron, which was to be my last outpost of civilisation, is a
quadrangular stone building, plastered or painted white, having a
corrugated iron roof, and a courtyard enclosed by the two wings of the
building, having loop-holes in the walls for rifles and musketry, a
cemented water-tank dug under the yard, and tall heavy iron gates to
secure the place from attack by the natives.

I may here relate an occurrence at a station farther up the line,
built upon the same principle. One evening, while the telegraph master
and staff were sitting outside the gates after the heat of the day,
the natives, knowing that the stand of arms was inside the courtyard,
sent some of their warriers to creep unseen inside and slam the gates,
so as to prevent retreat. Then from the outside an attempt to massacre
was made; several whites were speared, some were killed on the spot,
others died soon afterwards, but the greatest wonder was that any at