ed football
with a tail. As he jumps, he hangs one forepaw by his side, while the
other is stretched out with the little hand dangling as if the wrist were
broken. Everything must be spoken of comparatively in this country; thus
the ubiquitous rat may be seen, at the most, a dozen times in a day's
march; an oasis may measure no more than thirty yards across; a creek is
dry, and may be only half a mile long and a few feet broad; a high range
may stand three to four hundred feet above the surrounding country, seldom
more; and "good feed" may mean that the camels find something to eat
instead of being tied down without a bite.

For instance, to continue our journey, on August 1st we have "...the
same miserable country until the evening, when a sudden change brings us
into a little oasis enclosed by cliffs, a small creek running through it.
Here we made camp, the camels enjoying a great patch of feed--could find
no water--saw several small quails--a number of grasshoppers and little
bees--flies of course in abundance. Lat. 27 degrees 40 minutes, long. 122
degrees 54 minutes. Cloudy night."

The next day we sighted a big range to the East across a deep valley, and
a broken table-top range to the North. Following down the little creek we
came on a shallow native well, quite dry; crossing the grassy flat in
which it was dug, winding through a thicket, we again reached open sand.
Here we saw for the first time since leaving Coolgardie the tracks of
wild aboriginals, and the first tracks of blacks, either wild or tame,
since leaving Cutmore's Well. Evidently this part of the world is not
overpopulated. Since everything pointed to the rain having been general,
since the tracks were leading in a direction nearly opposite to our own,
and since at the time we had water enough, we did not waste time in
following them up.

That night we were forced to camp on a barren spot, and tied the camels
down foodless; one night without feed does them no harm--less harm than if
they wandered miles in their hobbles looking for it. The weather was now
distinctly hot, unpleasant and stuffy, as if about to thunder; but the
nights were still cold. At midday we saw two fine quondong trees; how the
camels devoured them, leaves, fruit, stones and all! Emus swallow the
stones without inconvenience; apparently a camel has an equally convenient
interior, but he brings them up again in his cud and drops them out of his
mouth as his jaws move from side to