he night; and, having unloaded and tethered these horses, we returned to
assist the others, and after a great deal of difficulty got the remainder
of the weak ponies safe to the encampment.

I slept but little this night for I doubted whether, with our cattle so
enfeebled and so out of condition, we should ever succeed in penetrating
any distance into the country. We were still a considerable way from the
fertile plains I had seen to the southward, whilst the intervening ground
was very difficult to travel across and afforded no good feed for the
ponies. All my meditations however only terminated in the conviction that
it was my duty to continue to use my best exertions under such adverse
circumstances.

February 4.

There being no good grass for the horses where we were, I was obliged to
move the party and commenced by using every method I could to lighten the
loads and to rid the expedition of all encumbrances. I left here a male
and female goat who, by their obstinacy, delayed our movements; thinking
also that, if they escaped the natives, their offspring might become a
valuable acquisition to this land.

We also left here 28 pounds of gunpowder, 10 pounds of ball cartridges,
70 pounds of shot, 200 pounds of preserved meat, some carpenters' tools,
and many other useful articles; yet, notwithstanding this decrease in the
loads of the ponies, the country we had to travel through was so bad that
we only completed two miles in the course of the day; and yet to find the
track by which we did succeed in crossing the range had cost me many
successive hours' walking under a burning sun. The character of the
country we passed through was the same as these sandstone ranges always
present; namely, sandy scrubby plains, and low ranges of ruinous, rocky
hills, in trying to scramble over which the ponies received numerous and
severe falls. We however had a very beautiful halting-place, shaded by
lofty pines and affording fair feed for the animals.

NEW PLAN OF MOVEMENTS.

February 5.

On this morning it was reported to me that several of the ponies were in
a dying state, and that none of them would be again able to carry even
such light loads as they had hitherto done; the quantity of stores they
could now convey was quite inadequate to supply a party of the strength
we were obliged to move with for any great length of time. A new plan of
operations was thus forced upon me, and I now resolved to proceed as
follows:

To a