L POSITION.

I had taken all the horses, with the exception of one, out with me on
this journey, and as they will shortly bear a prominent part in this
narrative, I will make some mention of them. My own horse was a grey--for
which reason I called him Duncan,--I had ridden him during the whole
period of my wanderings, and think I never saw an animal that could
endure more, or suffered less from the want of water; he was aged, and a
proof, that in the brute creation as well as with mankind, years give a
certain stamina that youth does not possess. This animal, as the reader
will believe, knew me well, as indeed did all the horses, for I had stood
by to see them watered many a time. Mr. Stuart rode Mr. Browne's horse, a
little animal, but one of great endurance also; Mack used a horse we
called the Roan, a hunter that had been Mr. Poole's. Morgan rode poor
Punch, whose name I have before had occasion to mention, and who,
notwithstanding subsequent rest, had not recovered from the fatigues of
his northern excursion. Besides these we had four pack horses:--Bawley, a
strong and compact little animal, with a blaze on the forehead, high
spirited, with a shining coat, and having been a pet, was up to all kind
of tricks, but was a general favourite, and a nice horse;--the other was
Traveller, a light chesnut, what the hunter would call a washy brute,
always eating and never fat;--the Colt, so called from his being young,
certainly unequal to such a journey as that on which he was taken;--and
Slommy, another aged horse. During the summer, Traveller had had a great
discharge from the nose, and I was several times on the point of ordering
him to be shot, under an apprehension that his disease was the glanders;
but, although the colt and my own horse contracted it, I postponed my
final mandate, and all recovered; however, he continued weak. At this
time they were unshod, and had pretty well worn their hoofs down to the
quick, insomuch that any inequality in the ground made them limp, and it
was distressing to ride them; but, notwithstanding, they bore up
singularly against the changes and fatigues they had to go through.

From a small rising ground near where we stopped in the valley, on the
occasion of which I am speaking, and in the obscure light of departing
day we saw to the N.N.W. a line of dark looking hills, at the distance of
about ten or twelve miles, but we could not discover tree or bush upon
them, all we could make out