out it, the hardships they endured, their desperate
struggles for existence, and death there, and I casually remarked that
Wills had a brother who also lost his life in the field of discovery.
He had gone out with Sir John Franklin in 1845. Gibson then said, "Oh!
I had a brother who died with Franklin at the North Pole, and my
father had a deal of trouble to get his pay from government." He
seemed in a very jocular vein this morning, which was not often the
case, for he was usually rather sulky, sometimes for days together,
and he said, "How is it, that in all these exploring expeditions a lot
of people go and die?" I said, "I don't know, Gibson, how it is, but
there are many dangers in exploring, besides accidents and attacks
from the natives, that may at any time cause the death of some of the
people engaged in it; but I believe want of judgment, or knowledge, or
courage in individuals, often brought about their deaths. Death,
however, is a thing that must occur to every one sooner or later." To
this he replied, "Well, I shouldn't like to die in this part of the
country, anyhow." In this sentiment I quite agreed with him, and the
subject dropped. At eleven miles we were not only clear of the range,
but had crossed to the western side of Lake Christopher, and were
fairly enclosed in the sandhills, which were of course covered with
triodia. Numerous fine casuarinas grew in the hollows between them,
and some stunted blood-wood-trees, (red gum,) ornamented the tops of
some of the sandhills. At twenty-two miles, on a west course, we
turned the horses out for an hour. It was very warm, there was no
grass. The horses rested in the shade of a desert oak-tree, while we
remained under another. These trees are very handsome, with round
umbrageous tops, the leaves are round and fringe-like. We had a meal
of smoked horse; and here I discovered that the bag with our supply of
horseflesh in it held but a most inadequate supply for two of us for a
week, there being scarcely sufficient for one. Gibson had packed it at
starting, and I had not previously seen it. The afternoon was
oppressively hot--at least it always seems so when one is away from
water. We got over an additional eighteen miles, making a day's stage
of forty.

The country was all sandhills. The Rawlinson Range completely
disappeared from view, even from the tops of the highest sandhills, at
thirty-five miles. The travelling, though heavy enough, had not been
so frightf