close to the ground, as they had
before done to the eastward, as well as a flight of the black-shouldered
hawks hovering in the air. Our day's ride had been very long and
fatiguing, as the horses were tired, but we got relieved by our arrival
at the camp a little before sunset on the 25th: and thus terminated
another journey in disappointment. We regretted to find that Mr. Poole
was seriously indisposed. His muscles were now attacked and he was
suffering great pain, but, as the disease appeared inclined to make to
the surface, Mr. Browne had some hopes of a favourable change. Both Mr.
Browne and myself found that the sameness of our diet began to disagree
with us, and were equally anxious for the reappearance of vegetation, in
the hope that we should be able to collect sow-thistles or the tender
shoots of the rhagodia as a change. We had, whilst it lasted, taken mint
tea, in addition to the scanty supply of tea to which we were obliged to
limit ourselves, but I do not think it was wholesome.

The moon entered her third quarter on the 27th, but brought no change; on
the contrary she chased away the clouds as she rose, and moved through
the heavens in unshrouded and dazzling brightness. Sometimes a dark mass
of clouds would rise simultaneously with her, in the west, but as the
queen of night advanced in her upward course they gradually diminished
the velocity with which they at first came up; stopped, and fell back
again, below the horizon. Not once, but fifty times have we watched these
apparently contending forces, but whether I am right in attributing the
cause I will not say.

At this time (the end of April) the weather was very fine, although the
thermometer ranged high. The wind being steady at south accounted for the
unusual height of the barometrical column, which rose to 30.600. On the
night of the 20th we had a heavy dew, the first since our departure from
the Darling. On the morning of the 28th it thundered, and a dense cloud
passed over to the north, the wind was unsteady, and I hoped that the
storm would have worked round, but it did not. At ten the wind sprung up
from the south, the sky cleared and all our hopes were blighted.

Notwithstanding that we treated the natives who came to the creek with
every kindness, none ever visited us, and I was the more surprised at
this, because I could not but think that we were putting them to great
inconvenience by our occupation of this spot. Towards the end of the
mo