s could
be watered by midday; at about three o'clock eight more were taken,
and it was night before they were satisfied; and now the first eight
came up again for more, and all the poor wretches were standing in and
around the tank in the morning. The next day was spent in doling out a
few quarts of water to each horse, while I spent the day in a
fruitless search for the fluid which evidently did not exist. Six
weeks or two months ago there must have been plenty of water here, but
now it was gone; and had I been here at that time, I have no doubt I
might have passed across to the Murchison; but now I must retreat to
the Shoeing Camp. When I got back at night, I found that not half the
horses had received even their miserable allowance of three quarts
each, and the horse I had ridden far and fast all day could get none:
this was poor little W.A. of my first expedition. One little wretched
cob horse was upon the last verge of existence; he was evidently not
well, and had been falling away to a shadow for some time; he was for
ever hiding himself in the scrubs, and caused as much trouble to look
after him as all the others put together. He was nearly dead; water
was of no use to him, and his hide might be useful in repairing some
packbags, and we might save our stores for a time by eating him; so he
was despatched from this scene of woe, but not without woeful cruelty;
for Jimmy volunteered to shoot him, and walked down the creek a few
yards to where the poor little creature stood. The possibility of any
one not putting a bullet into the creature's forehead at once, never
occurred to me; but immediately after we heard the shot, Jimmy came
sauntering up and said, "Oh! he wants another dose." I jumped up and
said, "Oh, you young--" No, I won't say what I told Jimmy. Then Gibson
offered to do it, and with a very similar result. With suaviter in
modo, sed fortiter in re, I informed him that I did not consider him a
sufficiently crack shot to enable him to win a Wimbledon shield; and
what the deuce did he--but there, I had to shoot the poor miserable
creature, who already had two rifle bullets in his carcass, and I am
sure with his last breath he thanked me for that quick relief. There
was not sufficient flesh on his bones to cure; but we got a quantity
of what there was, and because we fried it we called it steak, and
because we called it steak we said we enjoyed it, though it was
utterly tasteless. The hide was quite rotten an