, more numerous and of larger extent. The soil
is good but light, being produced by decomposed limestone, of which the
low range to the north-west is composed. I am unable to go to Fowler's
Bay as I intended; our provisions are exhausted, and the horses unable to
do the journey. I must now shape my course for Streaky Bay to get
something to eat.

Tuesday, 17th August, Miller's Water. Watered our horses from a
waterproof with a quart pot. Started at 9.15, our course 160 degrees, six
miles to Bectimah Gaip. For the first three miles the grassy plains are
very good, and seem to run a considerable distance between belts of large
mallee, in some places wider than in others, and seem to be connected by
small gaips; I think water could be easily obtained by digging. The last
three miles to the coast is very dense small mallee. Actual distance,
twelve miles. I intend to give the horses a rest to-morrow. I regret
exceedingly that I was unable to make Fowler's Bay. It is with difficulty
that I have been able to save Bonney; he is still very weak and unable to
do a day's journey; we can scarcely get him to do the short journeys we
have been doing lately. For upwards of a month we have been existing upon
two pounds and a half of flour cake daily, without animal food. Since we
commenced the journey, all the animal food we have been able to obtain
has been four wallabies, one opossum, one small duck, one pigeon, and
latterly a few kangaroo mice, which were very welcome; we were anxious to
find more, but we soon got out of their country.

These kangaroo mice are elegant little animals, about four inches in
length, and resemble the kangaroo in shape, with a long tail terminating
with a sort of brush. Their habitations are of a conical form, built with
twigs and rotten wood, about six feet in diameter at the base, and rising
to a height of three or four feet. When the natives discover one of these
nests they surround it, treading firmly round the base in order to secure
any outlet; they then remove the top of the cone, and, as the mice
endeavour to escape, they kill them with the waddies which they use with
such unfailing skill. When the nest is found by only a few natives, they
set fire to the top of the cone, and thus secure the little animals with
ease. For the last month we have been reduced to one meal a-day, and that
a very small one, which has exhausted us both very much and made us
almost incapable of exertion. We have now only