ch. The wretched horses could scarcely move, it was with the
greatest difficulty we got them down the hill, and now, although within
sight of our goal, I feared two of them would never reach it. By
perseverance we still got them slowly along, for two miles from the base
of the cliffs, and then turning in among the sand-drifts, to our great
joy and relief, found a place where the natives had dug for water; thus
at twelve o'clock on the seventh day since leaving the last depot, we
were again encamped at water, after having crossed 150 miles of a rocky,
barren, and scrubby table land.

Chapter II.

REFLECTIONS UPON SITUATION--WATCH FOR THE ARRIVAL OF THE NATIVE
BOYS--THEIR PROBABLE FATE--PROCEED ON THE JOURNEY--FACILITY OF OBTAINING
WATER--KILL A HORSE FOR FOOD--SILVER-BARK TEA-TREE--INTENSE COLD--FIRST
HILLS SEEN--GOOD GRASS--APPETITE OF A NATIVE--INJURIOUS EFFECTS OF
UNWHOLESOME DIET--CHANGE IN THE CHARACTER OF THE COUNTRY--GRANITE FORMS
THE LOW WATER LEVEL--TREE WASHED ON SHORE--INDISPOSITION.

Having at last got fairly beyond all the cliffs bounding the Great Bight,
I fully trusted that we had now overcome the greatest difficulties of the
undertaking, and confidently hoped that there would be no more of those
fearful long journeys through the desert without water, but that the
character of the country would be changed, and so far improved as to
enable us to procure it, once at least every thirty or forty miles, if
not more frequently.

Relieved from the pressure of immediate toil, and from the anxiety and
suspense I had been in on the subject of water, my mind wandered to the
gap created in my little party since we had last been at water; more than
ever, almost, did I feel the loss of my overseer, now that the last and
most difficult of our forced marches had been successfully accomplished,
and that there was every hope of our progress for the future, being both
less difficult and more expeditious. How delighted he would have been had
he been with us to participate in the successful termination of a stage,
which he had ever dreaded more than any other during the whole of our
journey, and with what confidence and cheerfulness he would have gone on
for the future. Out of five two only were now present; our little band
had been severed never to be reunited; and I could not but blame myself
for yielding to the overseer's solicitation to halt on the evening of the
29th April, instead of travelling on all nigh