o accompany Piper in a country so far from his own
home (Buree). On this I ordered Piper to be sent to Bathurst, and the
rations he was about to carry off, to be given to the other two, and that
he should be kept apart from them during the night. Thermometer at
sunrise, 85 deg.; at noon, 111 deg.; at 4 P.M., 112 deg.; at 9, 101 deg.;--with wet bulb,
78 deg..
1ST FEBRUARY.--This morning Piper was sent off with Corporal Graham. Mr.
Kennedy rode on also in order to find out the nearest police station, and
make arrangements, if possible, there, for forwarding Piper to Bathurst,
his own district, which would put it out of his power to molest the party
by endeavouring to induce the other natives to leave it. On them this
measure appeared to have a salutary effect, Yuranigh calmly observing
that Piper had only himself to blame for what had befallen him, and that
he had acted like a fool. Mr. Kennedy undertook also to obtain, if he
could, some more kangaroo dogs to replace those which had died from
excessive heat. By that loss our party was left almost without dogs; and
dogs were useful not only to kill kangaroos and emus, but to afford
protection from, or to give notice of, nightly attacks by the natives, in
which attacks those on that part of the Darling we were approaching, had
been rather too successful against various armed parties of whites.
Thermometer at sunrise, 88 deg.; at noon, 104 deg.; at 4 P.M., 106 deg.; at 9 P.M.,
88 deg.;--with wet bulb, 76 deg..
2ND FEBRUARY.--The setting sun descended on a blue stratus cloud which
appeared along the edge of all other parts of the horizon, and eagerly
watching any indication of a change, I drew even from this a presage of
rain. Thermometer at sunrise, 88 deg.; at noon, 104 deg.; at 4 P.M., 106; at 9,
88 deg.;--with wet bulb, 72 deg..
3RD FEBRUARY.--High winds whistled among the trees this morning, and dark
clouds of stratus appeared in the sky. A substantial shower fell about 9
A.M., and the horizon was gradually shut in by clouds of nimbus. The high
wind had blown steadily from north both yesterday and this morning, and
in the same quarter a thunder cloud seemed busy. But when the rain began
to fall, the wind shifted to the S.W., from which quarter the rain seemed
to come. With it came a very peculiar smell, which I had noticed near
Mount Arapiles in 1836, about the time of the commencement of the rainy
weather there; and nothing could have been more welcome to us now, th
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