ired and hungry, having only had one meal since they left
us on the 25th. They had been over the sandhills to fetch water, and were
now coming to try and find the flour which they knew we had left buried
at these plains. After dark, accompanied by the overseer, I took the
horses down to the water, but the sand had slipped in, and we could not
get them watered to-night.

February 27.--Sending the overseer and two boys down with the horses to
the well this morning, I and the other boy set to work, and dug out the
cask with the flour, which we then weighed out, and subdivided into
packages of fifty pounds each, for the convenience of carrying. The
native I had seen about the camp, on our approach, yesterday, had
returned, and slept near us at night; but upon inquiring from him this
morning, where our two-gallon keg was, he took the very earliest
opportunity of decamping, being probably afraid that we should charge him
with the robbery, or punish him for it. The natives, generally, are a
strange and singular race of people, and their customs and habits are
often quite inexplicable to us. Sometimes, in barely passing through a
country, we have them gathering from all quarters, and surrounding us,
anxious and curious to observe our persons, or actions; at other times,
we may remain in camp for weeks together without seeing a single native,
though many may be in the neighbourhood; when they do come, too, they
usually depart as suddenly as their visit had been unexpected. Among all
who had come under my observation, hitherto, along this coast, I found
that every male had undergone the singular ceremony I have described as
prevailing in the Port Lincoln peninsula; each, too, had the cartilage of
the nose perforated, but none had lost the front teeth, nor did I see any
(with one exception) having scars raised on the back, breast, or arms, as
is frequently the case with many tribes in Australia.

For the last few days, the weather had been tolerably cool, and we had
not been much troubled with musquitoes; instead, however, we were
persecuted severely by a very large greyish kind of horsefly, with a huge
proboscis for sucking up the blood. These pests were in great numbers,
and proved a sad annoyance, lighting upon us in every direction, and
inflicting very irritating wounds even through clothes of considerable
thickness.

February 28.--As we had a long distance to travel to the next water, and
the sheep could not keep pace with