I had left
it but twelve weeks and four days; during that interval I had
traversed and laid down over a thousand miles of previously totally
unknown country. Had I been fortunate enough to have fallen upon a
good or even a fair line of country, the distance I actually travelled
would have taken me across the continent.
I may here make a few remarks upon the Finke. It is usually called a
river, although its water does not always show upon the surface.
Overlanders, i.e. parties travelling up or down the road along the
South Australian Trans-Continental Telegraph line, where the water
does show on the surface, call them springs. The water is always
running underneath the sand, but in certain places it becomes
impregnated with mineral and salty formations, which gives the water a
disagreeable taste. This peculiar drain no doubt rises in the western
portions of the McDonnell Range, not far from where I traced it to,
and runs for over 500 miles straight in a general south-westerly
direction, finally entering the northern end of Lake Eyre. It drains
an enormous area of Central South Australia, and on the parallels of
24, 25, 26 degrees of south latitude, no other stream exists between
it and the Murchison or the Ashburton, a distance in either case of
nearly 1,100 miles, and thus it will be seen it is the only Central
Australian river.
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