heart of the desert, through the very country we now were in. For my part
I think that trade from tribe to tribe sufficiently accounts for the
presence of such articles as tent-pegs and pieces of iron, though
strangely enough an iron tent-peg is not commonly used nowadays, stakes
of wood being as serviceable, and none but a large expedition would be
burdened with the unnecessary weight of iron pegs.




CHAPTER X



THE DESERT OF PARALLEL SAND-RIDGES


My position for Family Well is lat. 22 degrees 40 minutes, long. 125
degrees 54 minutes. The well, as already stated, is situated at the foot
of the southern slope of a high sand-ridge. This ridge is the first of a
series of parallel banks of sand which extend, with occasional breaks,
from lat. 22 degrees 41 minutes to 19 degrees 20 minutes--a distance of
nearly 250 miles in a straight line. From September 16th to November 16th
we were never out of sight of a sand ridge, and during that time travelled
420 miles, taking into account all deviations consequent upon steering for
smokes and tracking up natives, giving an average of not quite seven miles
a day, including stoppages. This ghastly desert is somewhat broken in its
northern portion by the occurrence of sandstone tablelands, the Southesk
Tablelands; the southern part, however, viz., from lat. 22 degrees 41
minutes to lat. 20 degrees 45 minutes presents nothing to the eye but