We finished the smoke-house this afternoon, and, having secured the new victim we were going to slay, tied him up all night.  This time it was Tommy.  I had brought him originally from Victoria, and he had been out on my first expedition.  He was now very old and very poor, two coincidences that can only be thoroughly comprehended by the antiquated of the human race; and for my part I would rather be killed and eaten by savages, than experience such calamities at an advanced period of life.  Tommy did not promise much oil.  I shot him early, and we got him into the smoke-house with the exception of such portions as we kept fresh, by the afternoon.  We had to boil every bone in his body to get sufficient oil to fry steaks with, and the only way to get one’s teeth through the latter was to pound them well before cooking.  I wish I had a sausage machine.  The thermometer to-day only 78 degrees.  Had Gibson not been lost I should certainly have pushed out west again and again.  To say I was sorry to abandon such a work in such a region, though true, may seem absurd, but it must be remembered I was pitted, or had pitted myself, against Nature, and a second time I was conquered.  The expedition had failed in its attempt to reach the west, but still it had done something.  It would at all events leave a record.  Our stores and clothes were gone, we had nothing but horseflesh to eat, and it is scarcely to be wondered at if neither Mr. Tietkens nor Jimmy could receive my intimation of my intention to retreat otherwise than with pleasure, though both were anxious, as I was, that our efforts should be successful.  In our present circumstances, however, nothing more could be done.  In vain the strong will and the endeavour, which for ever wrestled with the tides of fate.

We set to work to shoe some of the horses.  When Tommy is smoked we shall depart.  He proved to have more flesh on his bones than I anticipated, and he may last us for a month.  The next few days got hot and sultry, and rain again threatened.  If we could only get a good fall, out to the west we would go again without a further thought; for if heavy rain fell we would surely find some receptacle at the Alfred and Marie Range to help us on?  But no, the rain would not come.  Every drop in this singular region seems meted and counted out, yet there are the marks of heavy floods on all the watercourses.  The question of when did the floods occur, which caused these marks, and when, oh when, will such phenomena occur again, is always recurring to me.  The climate of this region too seems most extraordinary; for both last night and the night before we could all lie on our blankets without requiring a rag to cover us, while a month ago it was so cold at night that we actually wanted fires.  I never knew the nights so warm in May in any other parts I have visited, and I cannot determine whether this is a peculiarity of the region, or whether the present is an unusual season throughout this half of the continent.  With the exception of a few showers which fell in January, not a drop of rain to leave water has fallen since I left the telegraph line.