BUSH HORRORS.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1414, 27 August 1878, Page 3

BUSH HORRORS.

The Lower Flinders correspondent, of the “Brisbane Courier,” writing on the 7th, describes the following sad case of suffering and death on the Cloncurry. Some time in the month of February last, three men, having one horse and two small canvas bags of water between them, left that field with the intention of proceeding to Charters Towers ; but, unfortunately, they started on a wrong track. At length, becoming convinced of this, and having, as they supposed, an idea of the direction in which the proper track lay, they left the one they had been following, thinking lo cut the right road by making through the bush. However, after wandering about

two days, without finding either track or water, they realised the fact of their being in a very serious position. On the evening of the second day it was arranged that one of the party should take horse and look for water, the other two agreeing to stay in camp and make a largo fire, to servo as a beacon for their mate on his return. After a ride of some hours the searcher was rewarded by finding a plentiful supply of water. Slaking his thirst and filling his bags, ho then made for where ho had left his companions, but was much dismayed when, after a long ride, ho could discover no trace of them or the promised fire. Becoming worn out, and thinking it useless to continue the search in the dark, he dismounted, and sat down at the foot of a tree, holding the bridle rein in his hands, intending to wait until daybreak. Ho feel asleep, however, and on awakening in the morning could find no trace of his horse, Continuing the search for his mates on foot, ho at length found whore ho had loft them on the previous night; but the men had gone on, after leaving a notice stuck on a tree to the effect that they intended making back for the Cloncurry. Seeing this, he at once determined to start for the same place, which ho was fortunate enough to reach. On his arrival there, his first inquiries, of course, were for his mates, and learning that they had not come in, he reported the matter to the police, the result of the report being that one constable (half dead with fever) and a black gin started out to look for the missing men. I need not go into details concerning the many dillxcnlties the trackers had to encounter. Suffice it to say that they discovered the body of one of the unfortunates, and a few miles further on, the shirt, trousers, &&, of the other. Anyone acquainted with these cases will understand what that means. It is most probable that the constable would have found the late wearer of the clothes also, but heavy rains setting in, the tracks were completely obliterated, making any further discoveries a matter of impossibility. One curious feature in connection with the case is the fact of the tracks passing alongside a waterhole at a time when the men must have been suffering terribly from thirst, and yet the men evidently not having stopped to drink. On seeing this the black tracker exclaimed, “ My word, that fellow cranky now, ho been think water fire; that one close up dead!” And the sad result proved her ability in bushcraft.