action is not understood by them.

The Darling at this time had ceased to flow, and formed a chain of ponds.
The Williorara was quite dry from one end to the other, as were the
lagoons and creeks in the neighbourhood. The natives having cleared the
river of the fish that had been brought down by the floods, now subsisted
for the most part on herbs and roots of various kinds, and on the
caterpillar of the gum-tree moth, which they procured out of the ground
with their switches, having a hook at the end. I do not think they could
procure animal food in the then state of the country, there being no
ducks or kangaroos in the neighbourhood, in any great quantity at all
events.

I thus early began to feel the benefit of a change of diet in the
diminished rigidity of my limbs, and therefore entertained great hopes
that I should yet be able to ride into Adelaide. The men too generally
began to recover from their fatigues, but both Mr. Browne and Mr. Stuart
continued to complain of shooting pains in their limbs. The party and the
animals however being sufficiently recruited to enable us to resume our
progress homewards, we broke up our camp at the junction of the
Williorara on the 26th of the month as I had proposed, under more
favourable circumstances than we could have expected, the weather being
beautifully fine and the temperature pleasant. When I was carried out of
my tent to the cart, I was surprised to see the verdure of that very
ground against the barrenness of which I had had to declaim the preceding
year; I mean the flats of the Williorara, now covered with grass, and
looking the very reverse of what they had done before; so hazardous is it
to give an opinion of such a country from a partial glimpse of it. The
incipient vegetation must have been brought forth by flood or heavy
rains.

We passed two tribes of natives, with whom we staid for a short time as
the old Boocolo was with us. Amongst these natives we did not notice the
same disproportion in the sexes as in the interior, but not only amongst
these tribes but with those of Williorara and Cawndilla, we observed that
many had lost an eye by inflammation from the attacks of flies. I was
really surprised that any of them could see, for most assuredly it is
impossible to conceive anything more tormenting than those brutes are in
every part of the interior.

On the 27th we passed two of our old encampments, and halted after a
journey of 16 miles in the close vicin