river. It was too boggy for our cattle to approach, but
it allowed us to quench our own thirst. We now re-entered the plains, and
followed the track of Charley, who soon returned with the pleasing
intelligence that he had found some fine water-holes. These were in the
bed of a creek, surrounded by a band of forest composed of box,
raspberry-jam trees, and the broad-leaved Terminalia, the fruit of which
was eaten by the black cockatoo. The slopes of the water-holes were steep
and boggy, and one of our bullocks was so exhausted that he slipped on
the steep banks, rolled into the water, and got so severely bogged, that
we were compelled to kill him, after trying everything in our power to
extricate him. On the 12th August we cut him up. The night, however, was
very foggy with heavy dew, which prevented the meat from drying. The
miserably exhausted state of the animal had rendered the meat very flabby
and moist, and it not only dried badly, but was liable to taint and to
get fly-blown.

August 13.--We had a fine sea-breeze from the northward, which dried the
outside of the meat well enough, but not the inside, so that it became in
many parts so putrid that I had to throw them away, although we saved a
good deal by splitting the puffed pieces, and exposing the inside to the
air.

The natives had surrounded the water-hole on which we encamped with a
barricade or hedge of dry sticks, leaving only one opening to allow the
emus to approach the water. Near this the natives probably kept
themselves concealed and waited for the emus; which in these parts were
remarkably numerous. On the 11th, John, Charley, and Brown, rode down
three birds, and, on the 14th, they obtained four more, two of which were
killed by John Murphy, who rode the fleetest horse and was the lightest
weight. The possibility of riding emus down, clearly showed in what
excellent condition our horses were. Even our bullocks although
foot-weary upon arriving at the camp, recovered wonderfully, and played
about like young steers in the grassy shady bed of the creek, lifting
their tails, scratching the ground with their fore feet, and shaking
their horns at us, as if to say, we'll have a run before you catch us.

The latitude of these water-holes was 18 degrees 4 minutes 27 seconds,
and they were about nine miles from the crossing place of the river,
which I calculated to be in longitude 139 degrees 20 minutes (appr.). The
plains were covered with flocks of small w