of it, and that all around looked blank and desolate. It is a
singular fact, that during the whole day, we had not seen a drop of
water or a blade of grass.

DESOLATING EFFECTS OF THE DROUGHT.

To have stopped where we were, would, therefore, have been impossible;
to have advanced, would probably have been ruin. Had there been one
favorable circumstance to have encouraged me with the hope of success,
I would have proceeded. Had we picked up a stone as indicating our
approach to high land, I would have gone on; or had there been a break
in the level of the country, or even a change in the vegetation. But we
had left all traces of the natives far behind us; and this seemed a
desert they never entered--that not even a bird inhabited. I could not
encourage a hope of success, and, therefore, gave up the point; not
from want of means, but a conviction of the inutility of any further
efforts. If there is any blame to be attached to the measure, it is I
who am in fault, but none who had not like me traversed the interior at
such a season, would believe the state of the country over which I had
wandered. During the short interval I had been out, I had seen rivers
cease to flow before me, and sheets of water disappear; and had it not
been for a merciful Providence, should, ere reaching the Darling, have
been overwhelmed by misfortune.

I am giving no false picture of the reality. So long had the drought
continued, that the vegetable kingdom was almost annihilated, and minor
vegetation had disappeared. In the creeks, weeds had grown and
withered, and grown again; and young saplings were now rising in their
beds, nourished by the moisture that still remained; but the largest
forest trees were drooping, and many were dead. The emus, with
outstretched necks, gasping for breath, searched the channels of the
rivers for water, in vain; and the native dog, so thin that it could
hardly walk, seemed to implore some merciful hand to despatch it. How
the natives subsisted it was difficult to say, but there was no doubt
of the scarcity of food among them.

We arrived in camp at a late hour, and having nothing to detain us
longer, prepared for our retreat in the morning. The natives had
remained with the party during the greater part of the day, and had
only left them a short time prior to our arrival.

When examining the creek on which we had been encamped for some days,
Mr. Hume observed a small junction; and as we knew we were almost d