On the settlement of the border question he returned to Adelaide, and is now engaged on the Victoria River.
20.3.WELLS AND CARNEGIE IN THE NORTHERN DESERT.
[Illustration.

L.A.Wells.

Photo: Duryea, Adelaide.] By this time the gold rush to the southern portion of Western Australia had set in strong, and the country that had so long repelled the pastoral pioneer by its aridity was now overrun with prospectors, their camps supplied with water by condensers at the salt lakes and pools.

At first the loss of life was very great; for it was not likely that a district that could be safely traversed only by the hardiest and most experienced bushmen would freely yield its secrets to untried men.

Of the many deaths that occurred from thirst, no complete record will ever be available.
Some unrecognisable and mummified remains may some day be found amid the untrodden waste; but few have yet been tempted to break in upon the solitude of the dead men of the desert.
As the southern goldfields spread and became thickly-populated, the food supply was an important question, and men's eyes naturally turned to the well-stocked northern stations, from which many cattle were being sent south by steamer.