can work for two and three days and go
three nights without water, but they can go for ever without sleep; it
is true they do sleep, but equally true that they can go without
sleeping. If I took my choice of all creation for a beast to guard and
give me warning while I slept, I would select the horse, for he is the
most sleepless creature Nature has made. Horses seem to know this; for
if you should by chance catch one asleep he seems very indignant
either with you or himself.

It was absolutely necessary to give our horses a day's rest, as they
looked so much out of sorts this morning. A quarter of the day was
spent in watering them, and by that time it was quite hot, and we had
to erect an awning for shade. We were overrun by ants, and pestered by
flies, so in self-defence we took another walk into the gullies,
revisited the aboriginal National Gallery of paintings and
hieroglyphics, and then returned to our shade and our ants. Again we
pored over the little German map, and again envied more prosperous
explorers. The thermometer had stood at 101 degrees in the shade, and
the greatest pleasure we experienced that day was to see the orb of
day descend. The atmosphere had been surcharged all day with smoke,
and haze hung over all the land, for the Autochthones were ever busy
at their hunting fires, especially upon the opposite side of the great
lake; but at night the blaze of nearer ones kept up a perpetual light,
and though the fires may have been miles away they appeared to be
quite close. I also had fallen into the custom of the country, and had
set fire to several extensive beds of triodia, which had burned with
unabated fury; so brilliant, indeed, was the illumination that I could
see to read by the light. I kindled these fires in hopes some of the
natives might come and interview us, but no doubt in such a poorly
watered region the native population cannot be great, and the few who
do inhabit it had evidently abandoned this particular portion of it
until rains should fall and enable them to hunt while water remained
in it.

Last night, the 23rd October, was sultry, and blankets utterly
useless. The flies and ants were wide awake, and the only thing we
could congratulate ourselves upon, was the absence of mosquitoes. At
dawn the thermometer stood at 70 degrees and a warm breeze blew gently
from the north. The horses were found early, but as it took nearly
three hours to water them we did not leave the glen till pa