At the time of which I am writing this land was considered likely to be as
rich as Ophir. Luck and I were expected to trip up over nuggets, and come
back simply impregnated with gold. Unfortunately we not only found no
gold, but formed a very poor idea of that part of the property which we
were able to traverse, though, given a good supply of water, it should
prove valuable stock country. Before we had been very long started on our
journey we met numerous parties returning from that region, though legally
they had no right to prospect there; each told us the same story--every
water was dry; and since every one we had been to was all but dry, we
concluded that they were speaking the truth; so when we arrived at Yindi,
a large granite rock with a cavity capable of holding some twenty
thousand gallons of water, and found Yindi dry, we decided to leave the
Hampton Plains and push out into new country.

Queen Victoria Spring, reported permanent by Giles, lay some seventy
miles to the eastward, and attracted our attention; for Lindsay had
reported quartz country near the Ponton, not far from the Spring, and the
country directly between the Spring and Kurnalpi was unknown.

On April 15th we left Yindi, having seen the last water twenty-six miles
back near Gundockerta, and passed Mount Quinn, entering a dense thicket of
mulga, which lasted for the next twenty miles. It was most awkward country
to steer through, and I often overheard Luck muttering to himself that I
was going all wrong, for he was a first-rate bushman and I a novice. I had
bought a little brumby from a man we met on the Plains, an excellent pony,
and most handy in winding his way through the scrub. Luck rode Jenny and
led the other two camels. Hereabouts we noticed a large number of old
brush fences--curiously I have never once seen a new one--which the
natives had set up for catching wallabies. The fences run out in long