and I believe
that one does even better without it. We have not felt the slightest
inconvenience from the want of flour; and we were a long time without
salt. The want of the latter, however, made us costive, and, when we
began to use it again, almost every one of us had a slight attack of
diarrhoea.

Our horses were still in excellent condition, and even improving; and our
five bullocks also kept in good working order, although the oldest of
them rather lagged behind. In choosing bullocks for such a journey, one
should be particularly careful to choose young powerful beasts, about
five or six years old, and not too heavy. All our old and heavy bullocks
proved to be bad travellers; only one had borne the journey until now,
and he was only preserved by great care and attention. During summer, the
ground is so hot, and frequently so rotten, that even the feet of a dog
sink deep. This heat, should there be a want of water during a long
stage, and perhaps a run after game in addition, would inevitably kill a
soft dog. It is, therefore, of the greatest importance to have a good
traveller, with hard feet: a cross of the kangaroo dog with the
bloodhound would be, perhaps, the best. He should be light, and satisfied
with little food in case of scarcity; although the dried tripe of our
bullocks gave ample and good food to one dog. It is necessary to carry
water for them; and to a little calabash, which we obtained from the
natives of the Isaacs, we have been frequently indebted for the life of
Spring.

Sept. 8.--We travelled about ten miles north-west by west, to latitude 16
degrees (Unclear:)81 minutes. The first and last parts of the stage were
scrubby, or covered with a dense underwood of several species of Acacia,
Grevillea chrysodendrum and a species of Pultenaea with leafless
compressed stem. The intervening part of our journey was through a
stringy-bark forest, with sandy, and frequently rotten soil, on sandstone
ridges or undulations. Some patches of stiffer soil were covered with box
or with straggling apple-gum and bloodwood. In the scrub, I again
observed Fusanus with pinnate leaves. Several good sized dry sandy creeks
were surrounded with Pandanus. We saw a low range in form of a
horse-shoe, to the westward; and a higher one beyond it in the distance.
We encamped at a small river, which had just ceased running, but
contained in its bed two chains of small deep ponds full of perches, and
shaded with Pandanus and dro