nted flour left, and that if they did not make play
whilst they had strength their eventually reaching Perth was quite
hopeless. This however was a very popular doctrine for thoughtless and
weary men, who were overloaded and yet from a feeling of avarice would
not abandon any portion of what they were carrying. The majority of the
party not only adopted these views in theory but doggedly carried them
into practice; and from this moment I abandoned all hope of getting the
whole party into the settled districts in safety. Poor fellows! most of
them paid dearly for the mistaken notions they now adopted. Mr. Smith,
with his usual spirit, was for pushing on, although his strength was
inadequate to the task. I laid under the shade of a bush lost in gloomy
reveries and temporary unpopularity; Kaiber by my side lulled me with
native songs composed for the occasion, and in prospective I saw all the
dread sufferings which were to befall the doomed men who sat around me,
confident of their success under the new plan; but like all prophets I
was without honour amongst my own acquaintance; and after considering the
matter under every point of view I thought it better for the moment to
succumb to the general feeling, yet to lose no opportunity on every
subsequent occasion of endeavouring to rouse the party into a degree of
energy suited to our desperate circumstances.

At the end of the three hours I again begged several of the party, who
appeared to be in an exhausted state, to abandon a portion of their
useless loads; but they were quite sure that by making short marches, not
exhausting their strength, and now and then halting for a day or two to
refresh, they could carry them into Perth, and therefore refused to part
with them. Mr. Smith and myself found that stopping in this way and
getting cold rendered our limbs so stiff and painful when we walked on
again that we could scarcely move; and I suspect that such was the case
with the other men, for when we started again I could hardly get them
along. One man of the name of Stiles, who was a stout supporter of the
new theory, made us stop for him nearly every five minutes.

THE BOWES RIVER.

After walking one mile we fortunately came to a very deep valley, having
such steep limestone cliffs on each side that it assumed quite the
character of a ravine: it was about a mile wide and in it was a
watercourse winding through deep flats. We however only found water in
pools; the course o