MR. ERNEST GILE'S EXPLORATIONS IN CENTRAL AND WESTERN AUSTRALIA.
Mr. Ernest Giles is a native of Bristol, in England. As soon as his
education was finished he rejoined his father and family, who had
preceded him to Australia. He very early developed a passion for
exploration, and gained valuable experience in connection with various
expeditions which he served in a subordinate capacity. His own fame as
an explorer rests securely on the following enterprises:--
I.
Shortly after the construction of the Port Darwin telegraph, Mr. Giles
made a persevering attempt to lead a small party from Chambers's Pillar
to the sources of the Murchison River. The expenses were provided partly
by himself and partly by Baron Von Mueller, of Melbourne. The party
consisted of Messrs. Giles, Carmichael, and A. Robinson, with fifteen
horses and one dog. The start was made about the middle of August, 1872.
For the early part of the journey the River Finke was followed, but it
led them into a rugged, mountainous country, in which travelling was
difficult. The scenery was often charming, as one glen after another was
explored. Palm-Tree Glen, in particular, called forth unceasing
admiration on account of the multitude of wild flowers which were "born
to blush unseen and waste their sweetness on the desert air." "I
collected to-day," says Mr. Giles, "and during the other days since we
have been in this glen, a number of most beautiful flowers, which grow
in profusion in this otherwise desolate glen. I am literally surrounded
by fair flowers of many a changing hue. Why Nature should scatter such
floral gems in such a sterile region is difficult to understand; but
such a variety of lovely flowers of every colour and perfume I have
never met with previously. They alone would have induced me to name this
the Glen of Flowers, but having found in it also so many of the stately
palm-trees, I have called it the Glen of Palms." During a further
advance among the outlying spurs of the M'Donnell Ranges, the Finke was
left, or lost, and laborious search had often to be made for water. The
mountains were high, but no creek was found with a longer course than
twelve miles. The peaks often assumed strange and fantastic shapes, as
the explorers have indicated by such names as Mount Peculiar, Haast's
Bluff, &c. The following quotation from the journal shows how they were
straitened at this time through want of water. After finding a little in
the hollow of a rock, just sufficient to save life, Mr. Giles says:--"It
was necessary to try to discover more water if possible, so, after
breakfast, I walked away, but, after travelling up gullies and gorges,
hills and valleys, I had to return quite unsuccessful, and I can only
conclude that this water was permitted by a kind Providence to remain
here in this lovely spot for my especial benefit.... I have, in
gratitude, called it Mount Udor, as being the only one in this region
where a drop of that requisite element was to be obtained. And when I
left the udor had departed also." This incident occurred at the
twenty-first camp from Chambers's Pillar. From this point a persevering,
but unsuccessful, effort was made to strike out west in the direction of
a chain named Ehrenberg's Mountain. Want of water again forced the party
back on Mount Udor. A more southerly route led to the important
discovery of a great saltwater lake, which was called Amadeus, after the
then King of Spain, son of Victor Emanuel. Beyond this long, but
comparatively narrow, sheet of water, a conspicuous mountain, named
Olga, specially attracted the attention of Mr. Giles, who was anxious to
reach it by rounding the lake. But this labour was prevented by an
incident which, unhappily, caused the purpose of the expedition to
collapse. Robinson had been seized with homesickness, and the infection
reached Carmichael, who obstinately refused to proceed any further.
Giles tried the effect of moral suasion, which was the only weapon
available for a volunteer. He pleaded the large supply of provisions,
the importance of the enterprise, and the ignominy of turning back. But
it was to no purpose. Carmichael had made up his mind and would listen
to no arguments. Giles was now compelled to direct his march back to
the telegraph line, "a baffled and beaten man." During this inglorious
retreat the course lay by the Peterman, the Palmer, and the Finke
rivers, and by this route the original camp No. 1 was reached. Here is
the conclusion of the whole matter in Mr. Giles's own words:--"My
expedition was over. I had failed in my object (to penetrate to the
sources of the Murchison River) certainly, but not through any fault of
mine, as I think any impartial reader of my journal will admit.... We
travelled to the eastward along the course of the River Finke
(homeward), and passed a few miles to the south of Chambers's Pillar,
which had been my starting-point. I had left it but twelve weeks and
four days to the time I re-sighted it, and during that interval I had
traversed and laid down about a thousand miles of country. My expedition
thus early ends. Had I been fortunate enough to have fallen upon a good,
or even fair, line of country, the distance I actually travelled would
have taken me across the continent."
II.
A second attempt was made by the same explorer shortly after his return
from the first. The funds being provided by the liberality of the
Victorian colonists, a light party, consisting of Messrs. Giles,
Tietkens, Gibson, and Andrews, with twenty-four horses, were despatched
for the purpose of crossing the western half of Australia. They left the
telegraph road at the junction of the Stevenson and Alberga creeks on
the 4th of August, 1873. The latter was followed for some distance
westward, after which, by a short cross-country route to the north, the
Hamilton River was reached, and taken as a guide so far as was
practicable. This journey led to the discovery of four remarkable
mountain-chains. The first of these was named Anthony Range. From one of
the summits they beheld a sea of mountains, countless in number, many of
which presented the most comically fantastic shapes and forms which the
imagination can conceive. Ayer's Range was next reached, and an equally
commanding view obtained from one of its heights. The next was the
Musgrave Range, occupying a central position in a far-reaching expanse
of good country. Here the natives were encountered in a hostile
attitude, but were beaten off by the superior arms of four white men.
After a journey of 400 miles they reached Mt. Olga, which had been
sighted on the former expedition. In this neighbourhood also, they found
the tracks of Mr. Gosse, a contemporary explorer, which led to a
deviation from the proposed route. In Cavanagh's Range a depôt was
established, as a basis for tentative explorations in a forbidding tract
of country. About 110 miles from this centre they made a welcome
discovery of a waterfall of 150 feet, sending forth a musical roar as it
fell, and scattering around a plentiful shower of spray. This gladdening
apparition in the desert received the name of the Alice Falls. The
country in the immediate neighbourhood was also well grassed. This
place has doubtless a future in store for it. Turning more to the north,
in the direction of a broken country, another splendid range, named the
Rawlinson, was discovered. It extended to 60 miles in length, with a
breadth of five or six. The peaks were remarkably pointed and jagged.
From this position an attempt was made to strike out in a north-westerly
direction, but bad fortune compelled them to return after Mt.
Destruction had been reached. Four of the horses had been lost in a
journey of ninety miles; water was not to be found; the natives were
troublesome; and the eye could discern nothing ahead but spinifex desert
and rolling sand-hills. A return to the Rawlinson Range was, therefore,
imperative. Having again rested for a little, another determined effort
was made to force a passage due west across the interior and strike the
outposts of settlement in Western Australia. All was done that man could
do, but impossibilities are not to be accomplished. The western flanks
of the Rawlinson Range faded away into a barren and waterless desert.
Giles and Gibson had, as a gigantic effort of perseverance, penetrated
98 miles into this inhospitable waste. But no further could they go.
Here, on the 23rd of April, the utmost bourne of the expedition was
reached. One of the two horses here knocked up and died. This was the
last time Gibson was seen. Giles did his utmost to bring him help, but
he was never found. His bones lie somewhere in that awful wilderness,
which to this day bears his name. When the furthest point was reached
better fortune seemed to loom in the distance. Another range of lofty
mountains was descried athwart the western horizon, which he called the
Alfred and Marie, after the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh. They might as
well have been in the moon so far as Mr. Giles was concerned in his now
pitiable plight. His own reflections were deplorably bitter:--"The hills
bounding the western horizon were between thirty and forty miles away,
and it was with extreme regret that I was compelled to relinquish a
further attempt to reach them. Oh, how ardently I longed for a camel;
how ardently I gazed upon the scene! At this moment I would even my
jewel eternal have sold for power to span that gulf that lay between.
But it could not be; situated as I was, I was compelled to retreat, and
the sooner the better." Such was his destiny. After almost twelve
months' wanderings in the wilderness, three of the four explorers
escaped with their lives, and reached the central telegraph line on the
13th of July.
III.
Such battling with relentless fortune would have extinguished the spirit
of adventure in most men. In the case of Mr. Giles it fanned it into a
brighter flame. Refusing to be baffled, his noble perseverance was at
length rewarded with a double journey across the western half of the
continent. This expedition was fitted out by Sir Thomas Elder, of
Adelaide, who supplied him with nineteen camels and provisions for
eighteen months. The party consisted of Messrs. Giles, Tietkens, Young,
A. Ross, P. Nicholls, Selah (an Afghan), and a black boy. The route
proposed was from Youldah to Perth, and the start was made on the 27th
July, 1875. This, though a successful, was a very trying journey. They
crossed desert after desert for a distance of 1,500 miles. On one
occasion they were reduced to the last extremity of thirst, and saved
from perishing by the happy discovery of a spring in the Great Victoria
Desert, 600 miles from the out-settlements of Western Australia. They
reached Perth on the 10th November, having travelled a distance of 2,575
miles in about five months. The following is Mr. Giles's summary of the
journey:--"The expedition has been successful, yet the country traversed
for more than a thousand miles in a straight line was simply an
undulating bed of dense scrub, except between the 125th and 127th
meridians, the latitude being nearly the 30th parallel. Here an arm of
the Great Southern Plain ran up and crossed our track, which, though
grassy, was quite waterless. The waters were, indeed, few and far
between throughout. On one occasion, a stretch of desert was encountered
in which no water was obtainable for 325 miles, which only the
marvellous sustaining powers of Mr. Elder's all-enduring beasts enabled
us to cross. The next desert was only 180 miles to a mass of granite,
where I saw natives for the first time on the expedition. They attacked
us there, but we managed to drive them off. Mount Churchman was now only
160 miles distant, and we found water again before reaching it. We
struck in at Toora, an out-station, where the shepherd was very
hospitable. At other homesteads we were most kindly welcomed." By
another journey, in a reverse direction, across the western interior,
Mr. Giles returned to the central telegraph, which for so long had
formed his base of operations. Leaving Perth on the 13th of January,
1876, he pushed north, and struck the Ashburton River, thence passed
through 150 miles of desert, and from the opposite side reached the
Alfred and Marie Range, from which he had been so piteously thrust back
in 1873. He soon after reached the Rawlinson Range, which he had
discovered on that same expedition. Being now in a known country, he
passed safely through it, and reached the Peak telegraph station on the
23rd of August, 1876. His journey thence to Adelaide was ordinary travel
in the Australian bush.