fifteen miles distant; this I named Mount Fleming, after Colonel Fleming,
then Commandant of the West Australian forces.

May 2nd we reached the hills and rejoiced to find ourselves once more in
decent country. Numerous small, dry watercourses ran down from the hills,
fringed with grass and bushes. In the open mulga, kangaroos' tracks were
numerous, and in the hills we saw several small red kangaroos, dingoes,
and emus. At first we found great difficulty in identifying any of the
hills; but after much consultation and reference to the map we at last
picked out Mount Shenton, and on reaching the hill knew that we were
right, for we found Wells' cairn of stones and the marks of his camp and
camels. The next difficulty was in finding the soakage, as from a bad
reproduction of Wells' map it was impossible to determine whether the soak
was at the foot of Mount Shenton or near another hill three miles away.
It only remained to search both localities. Our trouble was rewarded by
the finding of an excellent little soakage, near the foot of a granite
rock, visible due East, from the top of Mount Shenton, some two miles
distant. Here we had an abundant supply, and not before it was wanted. The
camels had had no water with the exception of a mouthful apiece from the
night of April 21st until the night of May 3rd, a period of twelve days,
during which we had travelled nearly two hundred miles over very trying
ground. The cool nights were greatly in their favour, and yet it was a
good performance, more especially that at the end of it they were in
pretty fair fettle.

What a joy that water was to us! what a luxury a wash was! and clean
clothes! Really it's worth while being half famished and wholly filthy for
a few days, that one may so thoroughly enjoy such delights afterwards!
I know few feelings of satisfaction that approach those which one
experiences on such occasions. Our cup of joy was not yet full, for as we