elf and his companions, might
complete the perusal with the impression on his mind that the whole
affair was rather pleasant than otherwise--a sort of prolonged
pic-nic, varied by kangaroo hunts, fishing parties, and shooting
excursions. Bread stuffs, he would have to admit, were scarce in that
cornless land: but hard exercise and fresh air sharpen the appetite
and strengthen the digestion; and a keen woodsman will not heed
bannocks when he can get beef, varied by such an exotic viand as
kangaroo venison, and by such delicate and fantastical volatiles as
harlequin pigeons and rose-breasted cockatoos. Nay, so easy is it to
fight battles in one's back parlour, and to endure hardships with
one's feet on the fender, that this same imaginary and hastily-judging
reader, whose flippant conclusions we now quote, may think lightly of
the necessity in which our travellers found themselves of eating a
horse, as recorded in the Leichhardtian journal, p. 247. A horse broke
its thigh, and it was resolved to make the best of the meat. It proved
tolerably palatable, especially the liver and kidneys, pronounced
equal to those of a bullock. When the flour was gone, the only relief
from the monotony of a carnivorous diet was obtained by
experimentalising on seeds, fruits, and roots, of which many unknown
species were met with. How the party escaped death by poison is a
wonder, for they were very venturesome in their essays, and not
unfrequently were punished for their boldness by severe vomitings and
other unpleasant symptoms. The jerked meat they carried with them
often became musty and tainted, having been imperfectly dried, or from
the effects of rain. But their greatest difficulty was the frequent
scarcity of water, which sadly afflicted their horses, and prolonged
their route, compelling them to deviate from the direct course to
encamp near pools or lagoons. These were not always to be found; and
they often remained for very many hours, even for days, without other
water than they could carry in their scanty kettles. Then the bullocks
were allowed to stray in search of drink, and it was sometimes
necessary, in order to save the horses' lives, to take them back to
the previous night's camping place. The fatigues thus encountered
might well have exhausted the endurance and physical energies of the
strongest man. "I had been in a state of the most anxious suspense,"
says Dr Leichhardt on one of these occasions, "about the fate of our
bu