OUT IN THE WILDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20982, 19 September 1931, Page 2 (Supplement)

OUT IN THE WILDS.

STRENUOUS TRAVELLING. BOGGED EIGHTY-FIVE TIMES. i PROSPECTOR'S EXPERIENCES. Mr. Michael Terry, traveller, prospector and author, who lms been in Sydney on holiday, after three years of journeying m Central Australia, says he can imagine no. moro pleasant sound that the pattering of rain on a tiled roof—and he finds it extremely agreeable not to have to cook his own meals. After months under wet canvas in wet clothes, on wet blankets, prospecting for South Australian mining companies, ho is not sorry to return, to civilisation. Mr. Terry has been searching for a mine to offer on tho London market for big capitalisation, but as the result of his travels he has formed tho opinion that Central Australia as a whole is unlikely to produce mines of workable value. He has greater faith in tho possibilities of the area north-east from the Western Australian goldfields. On Mr. Terry's last trip—from Laverton to tho Warburton Ranges—heavy rains proved of great inconvenience to the party, consisting of four whites and a camel-boy. The equipment was carried on camels and a motor-truck. Nino inches

of rain fell in May and June, and the truck was bogged to the differential 85 times. At ono stago the prospectors were forced to travel in the truck for 300 miles in first gear, journeying about 18 miles a day. One still night the travellers saw a great blue meteorite falling, and heard it strike tho ground "with a report like tho explosion of a ton of dynamite." It filled tho sky with a pea-green light. _ Aborigines encountered in the interior Mr. Terry found unduly inquisitive and very friendly. There was an impressive scene one night, when their camp was encircled by a hundred twinkling fires, around which in small groups a great crowd of blacks squatted. Thirty "bucks" in a body invited tho prospectors to a corroboree, but the party did not accept, fearing that their stores would be stolen while they were away. Mr. Terry said that all the natives were in fine condition. The number of piccaninnies indicated the continued virility of the race, despite statements that it was deteriorating. Tho natives, having built fires protected from tho rain by spinifex shelters, would sit around chanting and talking all night. If the fire began to die down, a lubra, urged by a kick or a blow, would fetch more wood. One incident mado it plain to the travellers that the blacks would not permit undue intrusion by the whitesIn the Tomkinson Ranges the party separated—two whites and the boy with the camels going on fine bearing and the rest in the truck on another. Later, when the two sections rejoined, MrTerry found that the others had been escorted by four stalwart aborigines who, it was learned, had received instructions to spear the party had they kept going the same way. They were heading for a sacred cave near Mount Davies. Mr Terry bad already decided to make a detour, and all was well. Mr. Terry described the scenery in the Musgrave and Mann Ranges as among the finest in Australia—great irregular peaks, huge red granite boulders, and in tho rainy season a profusion of native grasses and hills green with pines.