and more difficult; so much so, in fact,
that at the council assembled to discuss the matter in the large
dining-room of the hotel, several voices urged the expediency of
abandoning any further attempts. Much valuable time, they remarked,
had been already expended by men to whom time represented money, nay
more--the means of living. Their own avocations imperiously demanded
their presence, and although they were the last men in the world to
desert their fellow-beings in extremity, still, in a country where
every man lived by the sweat of his own brow, self-interest could not
be entirely sacrificed.

[ILLUSTRATION--AUSTRALIANS IN CAMP.]

Even we, who were most anxious to organise another expedition, could
not but acknowledge that the searchers had much justice on their side;
but when we were discussing matters in rather a despondent tone, a new
ally came to the front in the person of Jack Clarke, the horse-breaker.

"Where do you propose going next?" he asked Dunmore.

"We must search the ranges at the back of the township first, and
another party must go up the Macalister River," was the reply.

"Need both parties start at the same time?"

"The chances of success would, of course, be greater if they did,"
replied the officer, "but still it is not absolutely necessary."

"Well," said Jack, "suppose you take the pilot boat, and go up the
river, which will take much longer to explore than the ranges; and, at
the end of a week, we shall have got our own affairs pretty straight,
and will beat all the country at the back, and join you on the
Macalister. What do you think of that, mates?" he added, turning to
the company. "Won't that suit us all?"

"Capitally!" was echoed from every side, and after sundry drinks the
party broke up; Dunmore and I hastening to make immediate preparations
for our new trip.

The Macalister River was at this time most imperfectly known; for,
lying to the extreme north of Rockingham Bay, its fertile banks had
hitherto attracted little or no attention; the great sugar industry
being then comparatively in its infancy in Queensland. A dangerous bar
at its mouth, over which heavy rollers were always breaking, made
pleasure-seekers rather shy of attempting its entry, more particularly
as the muddy mangrove flats held out small hope of aught save
mosquitoes and blacks. Since then the sugar-cane has become one of the
chief sources of wealth to the colony, and, in the search for land
adapte