and then greedily swallowed a few mouthfuls of the liquid mud,
protesting that it was the most delicious water and had a peculiar
flavour which rendered it far superior to any other he had ever tasted.

DANGER OF PERISHING FROM HUNGER.

But it required some time before their faculties were sufficiently
recovered to allow them duly to estimate the magnitude of the danger they
had escaped. The small portion of muddy water in the hole was soon
finished, and then by scraping it out clean we found that water began
slowly to trickle into it again. The men now laid themselves down almost
in a state of stupefaction, and rested by their treasured pool. I felt
however that great calls upon my energies might still arise, and
therefore, retiring a little apart with the native, I first of all
returned hearty thanks to my Maker for the dangers and sufferings he had
thus brought me through, and then tottered on with my gun in search of
food. As might have been expected, game was here plentiful: numerous
pigeons and other birds came down at nightfall (which was now the hour)
for the purpose of drinking at this lone pool, and the numbers of birds
of different kinds that congregated here was a most convincing proof of
the general aridity of this part of the country. Indeed the natives
subsequently reported that the tract we had just traversed was at this
season of the year totally devoid of water. It was in vain now that I
raised the gun, for my tremulous hand shook so that I could not for a
moment cover the bird I aimed at, and after one or two ineffectual
attempts to kill something I was obliged to desist in despair.

PANGS OF HUNGER.

I now dreaded that I had only escaped the pains of death by thirst in
order to perish of hunger, and for a moment regretted that I had not died
ere I found water, for I firmly believed, from the state of weakness I
was then reduced to, that the bitterness of death had passed. But a short
period sufficed to smother these unmanly and unchristian feelings in my
breast, and, seeing a flight of black cockatoos soaring about in the air,
I determined to watch them to their roosting-place, and then favoured by
the darkness of night to steal upon them. On my return to the party I
found the men sitting by the hole of water, anxiously watching until they
again saw a little black mud in it, which they then eagerly swallowed.

I found some difficulty in inducing them to light their fire and to
choose a situation