ality of them were fine young men, and supported themselves in a
very erect posture when standing or walking. There were many children
with the women, among whom colds seemed to prevail. It blew heavily
from the N.W. during the night, and a little rain fell in the early
part of the morning. Our route during the day, was over as melancholy a
tract as ever was travelled. The plains to the N. and N.W. bounded the
horizon; not a tree of any kind was visible upon them. It was equally
open to the S., and it appeared as if the river was decoying us into a
desert, there to leave us in difficulty and in distress. The very
mirage had the effect of boundlessness in it, by blending objects in
one general hue; or, playing on the ground, it cheated us with an
appearance of water, and on arriving at the spot, we found a
continuation of the same scorching plain, over which we were moving,
instead of the stream we had hoped for.

The cattle about this time began to suffer, and, anxious as I was to
push on, I was obliged to shorten my journeys, according to
circumstances. Amidst the desolation around us, the river kept alive
our hopes. If it traversed deserts, it might reach fertile lands, and
it was to the issue of the journey that we had to look for success. It
here, however, evidently overflowed its banks more extensively than
heretofore, and broad belts of reeds were visible on either side of it,
on which the animals exclusively subsisted. Most of the natives had
followed us, and their patience and abstinence surprised me
exceedingly. Some of them had been more than twenty-four hours without
food, and yet seemed as little disposed to seek it as ever. I really
thought they expected me to supply their wants, but as I could not act
so liberal a scale, George M'Leay undeceived them; after which they
betook themselves to the river, and got a supply of muscles. I rather
think their going so frequently into the water engenders a catarrh, or
renders them more liable to it than they otherwise would be. In the
afternoon the wind shifted to the S.W. It blew a hurricane; and the
temperature of the air was extremely low. The natives felt the cold
beyond belief and kindled large fires. In the morning, when we moved
away, the most of them started with fire-sticks to keep themselves
warm; but they dropped off one by one, and at noon we found ourselves
totally deserted.

DREARINESS OF THE LANDSCAPE.

It is impossible for me to describe the kind of