to get him
brought on here; and if much disabled to have him killed and jerked as
soon as the weather clears and the sun shines out sufficiently for that
purpose. Found bullock within a quarter of a mile of where he was left,
able just to stand and no more; I will send out tomorrow afternoon and
have him killed where he is and his flesh brought in here the morning
following for the purpose of jerking it; he appears good beef. The
country boggy; in the afternoon rode down to the creek through a good
deal of water to ascertain the state of the flood, and had to swim some
distance to get to the main creek; when I got there I was glad to find
that not only had it, for the present, arrived at its height, but had
gone down nearly nine inches. The last time this country was flooded it
was about seven feet higher (perpendicularly) than it was this time, and
the sand and stone hills were flooded for several feet up their sides
from their base. Wind still from south-east by east, with an occasional
slight passing shower, but symptoms of clearing up. This country is
perfectly infested with wild dogs; and fortunately for us it is that I
happened to have some strychnine, it plays great havoc amongst them; so
voracious are they that when one of their fellows die the others fall to
and devour him; by this means many are destroyed. Middleton recovering
but very slowly; he continues to have a very troublesome
diarrhoea--aggravated no doubt by being obliged for the last few days to
be nearly always wet; sometimes even to swim clothes and all, and
remaining in that condition till the camp was brought here and fixed; I
should be sorry if anything were to happen to him as he is an invaluable
man in such a party as this.

Tuesday, March 4.

Wind a little more east; shod some of the horses yesterday and some this
morning. Four of the party after dinner started to kill the bullock; camp
there and return in the morning with the meat when cold. I with Poole
rode out to some high stone hills eastward to endeavour to get a view of
the creek and ascertain, if possible, from which quarter it principally
flows. After getting to top of the highest, from which one gets very
extensive view to the north-east, there was a slight haze that prevented
me positively ascertaining its actual course; there is very heavy timber
on a bearing of 35 degrees, and appears surrounded by hills. The haze was
so bad that I could not be certain; however I must travel in t