assured that had it not been for the force of that
discipline which I rigidly maintained some of the party must now have
lost their lives. As it was, not a word of complaint was heard as to the
plan I pursued or the route I took; but they all reeled and staggered
after me, the silence being only broken by groans and exclamations. I
preserved a slow uniform pace, proceeding still in a south by east
direction, that is, in a straight line for Perth. The same sandy sterile
country was around, thinly clothed with Banksia trees.

We had marched for about an hour and a quarter and in this time had only
made two miles, when we suddenly arrived upon the edge of a dried-up bed
of a sedgy swamp, which lay in the centre of a small plain, where we saw
the foot-mark of a native imprinted on the sand, and again our hearts
beat with hope, for this sign appeared to announce that we were once more
entering the regions of animal life. We soon found that another part of
the swamp was thickly marked with the footsteps of women and children;
and as no water-baskets were scattered about no doubt could exist but
that we were in the vicinity of water. We soon discovered several native
wells dug in the bed of the swamp; but these were all dry, and I began
again to fear that I was disappointed, when Kaiber suddenly started up
from a thick bed of reeds and made me a sign which was unobserved by the
others, as was evidently his intention.

FORTUNATE DISCOVERY OF A MOIST MUD-HOLE. PROVIDENTIAL SUPPLY.

I hurried up and found him with his head buried in a small hole of moist
mud, for I can call it nothing else. I very deliberately raised Kaiber by
the hair, as all expostulations to him were useless, and then called up
the others.

Kaiber had completely swelled himself out with this thick muddy liquid,
and from the mark upon the sides of the hole had evidently consumed more
than half of the total supply. I first of all took some of this moist mud
in my mouth, but finding a difficulty in swallowing it, as it was so
thick, I strained a portion through a handkerchief. We had thirsted with
an intense and burning thirst for three days and two nights, during the
greater portion of which time we had been taking violent exercise under a
fierce sun. To conceive the delight of the men when they arrived at this
little hole of mud would be difficult. Each, as he came up and cast his
wearied limbs on the ground beside the hole, uttered these words: "Thank
God;"