The people on board appeared to be busily
engaged in clearing their cables which were foul, and did not observe me
at all. I tied up my horse, therefore, to a bush, and waited for Wylie,
who was not long in coming after me, having driven the poor horses at a
pace they had not been accustomed to for many a long day. I now made a
smoke on the rock where I was, and hailed the vessel, upon which a boat
instantly put off, and in a few moments I had the inexpressible pleasure
of being again among civilized beings, and of shaking hands with a
fellow-countryman in the person of Captain Rossiter, commanding the
French Whaler "Mississippi."

Our story was soon told, and we were received with the greatest kindness
and hospitality by the captain.

Chapter IV.

GO ON BOARD THE MISSISSIPPI--WET WEATHER--VISIT LUCKY BAY--INTERVIEW WITH
NATIVES--WYLIE UNDERSTANDS THEIR LANGUAGE--GET THE HORSES SHOD--PREPARE
TO LEAVE THE VESSEL--KINDNESS AND LIBERALITY OF CAPTAIN ROSSITER--RENEW
JOURNEY TO THE WESTWARD--FOSSIL FORMATION STILL CONTINUES--SALT WATER
STREAMS AND LAKES--A LARGE SALT RIVER--CHARACTER OF THE COUNTRY.

June 2.--AFTER watering the horses at a deposit left by the rains, in the
sheets of granite near us, and turning them loose, we piled up our little
baggage, and in less than an hour we were comfortably domiciled on board
the hospitable Mississippi,--a change in our circumstances so great, so
sudden, and so unexpected, that it seemed more like a dream than a
reality; from the solitary loneliness of the wilderness, and its
attendant privations, we were at once removed to all the comforts of a
civilised community.

After we had done ample justice to the good cheer set before us, by our
worthy host, he kindly invited us to remain on board as long as we
pleased, to recruit our horses, and told us, that when we felt refreshed
sufficiently to renew the journey, he would supply us with such stores
and other articles as we might require. I learnt that the Mississippi had
but recently arrived from France, and that she had only been three weeks
upon the ground she had taken up for the season's whaling. As yet no
whales had been seen, and the season was said not to commence before the
end of June or beginning of July. The boats I saw in the morning belonged
to her, and had been out chasing what they thought to be a whale, but
which proved to be only a fin-back, a species which was not thought to
repay the trouble of trying