n examination, proved to be those of a horse--picked
completely clean, however, by birds or insects.

"This shows that some traveller has been trying to make his way through
this defile; and if he came from the southward, it should encourage us
to hope that the route is practicable for four-footed beasts," observed
Mudge.

"Yes," I remarked; "but also, I fear, it makes it probable that there is
but little water or herbage, and that the poor animal must have died
from hunger and thirst. And look there! see, here are the bit and
stirrups, and the ironwork of the saddle. The rider must have found it
necessary to desert his steed without attempting to preserve them. Look
there! under the cliff are also part of a knapsack and other things."

We hurried on to the spot at which I pointed. There lay a gun, a brace
of pistols, a tinder-box, a clasp-knife, powder-horn, the brass of a
shot-belt, and many other articles. The knife attracted my attention--
it was exactly like one I had lost; and taking it up, what was my
surprise to see my own initials on the small plate in the handle, which
I had myself cut.

"That powder-horn is one I have used," observed Mudge; "I left it in the
store, intending to fill it. Let me see,--it was the very day before
the bushrangers paid us a visit. I have no doubt that the horse was one
ridden by the fellow who escaped, and that he must have been making his
way across the mountains when the animal fell down and died."

"If so, he must have been very hard pressed, or he would not have left
his gun and ammunition, on which he depended for subsistence, behind
him," I observed.

"You are right, Godfrey; and I have no doubt he must have been overtaken
by sickness, or been starved to death." Immediately after, Mudge
exclaimed,--"See! there is a piece of cloth hanging in that bush above
our heads; perhaps it was intended as a signal to any passer-by, or has
been blown there by the wind. I'll take off my knapsack and climb to
the top; there appears to be a broad ledge, from which I may get a view
down the gorge, and perhaps discover the most practicable path for us to
follow."

Mudge did as he proposed; when, getting his head above the level of the
ledge, he turned round and exclaimed,--"It is as I expected. There lies
the skeleton of the unhappy wretch, picked as clean as the bones of his
horse. He must have climbed up here for the purpose of looking about
him, and sunk down and died. N