were there, but all were dry. The prospect was sufficiently gloomy, for
our water was all but done, and poor Tommy, the pony, in spite of an
allowance of a billy-full per night, was in a very bad way, for we had
travelled nearly one hundred miles from the last water, and if this was
dry we knew no other that we could reach. However, we were not going to
cry before we were hurt and set to work to dig out the soak, and in a
short time were rewarded by the sight of water trickling in on all sides,
and, by roughly timbering the sides, soon had a most serviceable well--a
state of affairs greatly appreciated by Tommy and the camels. This spring
or soakage, whichever it may be, is in black sand, though the sand outside
the little basin is yellowish white. From what I have heard and read of
them it must be something of the nature of what are called "black soil
springs." Giles was right in his description of its remarkable
surroundings--unless we had marched right into the oasis, we should
perhaps have missed it altogether, for it was unlikely that Lindsay's
camel tracks would be visible except where sheltered from the wind by the
trees; and our only instruments for navigation were a prismatic and pocket
compass, and a watch for rating our travel. I was greatly pleased at such
successful steering for a first attempt of any distance, and Luck was as
pleased as I was, for to him I owed many useful hints. Yet I was not blind
to the fact that it was a wonderful piece of luck to strike exactly a
small spot of no more than fifty acres in extent, hidden in the valleys of
the sandhills, from whose summits nothing could be seen but similar mounds
of white sand. Amongst the white gum trees we found one marked with
Lindsay's initials with date. Under this I nailed on a piece of tin, on
which I had stamped our names and date. Probably the blacks have long
since taken this down and used it as an ornament. Another tree, a pine,
was marked W. Blake; who he was I do not know, unless one of Lindsay's
party. Not far off was a grave, more like that of a white man than of a
native; about its history, too, I am ignorant.