March 7 – Jock Kuburaga says that Aboriginals are following us.  Most unusual if true.  Primitives have every reason to fear guns and our bush ranger’s prediliection for using them.  In the past, I have always known them to head the other way as soon as they sight us.

March 21 – We are about equally distant from Joanna Spring and Separation Well, east of an awful line of dry lakes.  The heat is terrible, and our hopes are low – there is nothing here, certainly not quartz reefs.  L.’s notations must be in systematic error.  I’ve always said he was a complete duffer as a surveyor.  Also, today we sighted several enormous birds flying lazily above us.  How did they get here, and where can they be going?

March 22 -   At about noon today we found Jock, partly buried in a gully.  His body was scoured and covered with hundreds of small punctures, as though someone had sandblasted him.  We buried him, of course.  I shall miss his counsel, and he was an excellent hand with the camels.

March 23 – We have discovered what appears to be the tip of an ancient city, mostly buried in the sands!  I belive I have secured several good photographs of this amazing find, though the heat has ruined all but six plates.  By the pitting of the stone, the blocks and pillars appear to be more than 10,000 years old, as incredible as that seems.

March 24 – Four camels killed in the attack last night.  I saw shapes much bigger than men during the attack; my real evidence is the body of Old Sam the camel, punctured and – ‘scraped’ is the best word I can think of – just like poor Jock.  Since the attack lasted only a couple of minutes, it’s hard for me to believe that anything human could have done so much damage so quickly, but I have no other explanation.