he chockalott; also the beaccoo, or slate-coloured
parrot. Generally, however, with the exception of the crow and hawk,
birds were not very numerous except round water. Whenever a sheet of
water was found we found ducks, and in Lake Augusta swans and ducks were
innumerable.

In bringing this report to a close it is not necessary to refer much to
the reasons that induced me to keep more to the south than I originally
intended. It will readily be seen, after perusing this journal, that it
was a necessity, and that we could not get further north. It is a marvel
to me that we got through at all; the season was an exceptionally dry
one--in fact, a drought--our horses were of a very ordinary kind, and the
country most wretched.

When it is remembered that a horse in poor condition and in warm weather
cannot go much over a day without water, and when the sterility of the
country is considered, it will be readily seen what a disadvantage one
labours under without camels, which can go ten days without water. Well
can I sympathize with Mr. Giles when he states in his journal: "All I
coveted from my brother explorers was their camels, for what is a horse
in such a region as this? He is not physically capable of enduring the
terrors of this country." And so it is; horses are the noblest and most
useful animals in the world, but they must have food and water regularly.
The camel, on the other hand, is physically formed to travel over these
desolate regions, and in Australia has been known to go twelve and
fourteen days without water, carrying 300 pounds, and sometimes 400
pounds weight.

From these few remarks it will be seen what a great disadvantage Mr.
Giles and myself laboured under compared with Major Warburton and Mr.
Gosse; and what in similar circumstances might have been easily performed
by them was quite impossible in our circumstances.

In reading this journal, it may be wondered why we followed so much along
Mr. Gosse's track, when a new route for ourselves might have been chosen
more to the south. The reason is, I had intended, as soon as I reached the
129th meridian (the boundary of our colony), to make a long trip to the
south, near to Eucla, and thus map that important locality; but on
reaching there I was prevented by the following causes: The weather was
excessively warm; the country to the south seemed most uninviting
--sand-hills as far as could be seen, covered with spinifex; our horses
were very poor; our r