spot, having certainly 160 miles of desert without water to traverse, and perhaps none to be found at the end.  Now, having everything ready, and watered our camels, we folded our tents like the Arabs, and as silently stole away.  In consequence of having to carry so much water, our loads upon leaving Ooldabinna were enormously heavy, and the weather became annoyingly hot just as we began our journey.  The four camels which Alec Ross and I had out with us looked wretched objects beside their more fortunate companions that had been resting at Ooldabinna, and were now in excellent condition; our unfortunates, on the contrary, had been travelling for seventeen days at the rate of twenty-three miles per day, with only one drink of water in the interval.  These four were certainly excellent animals.  Alec rode my little riding cow Reechy.  I had a splendid gelding, which I named the Pearl Beyond all Price, though he was only called the Pearl.  He was a beautiful white camel.  Another cow I called the Wild Gazelle, and we had a young bull that afterwards became Mr. Tietkens’s riding camel.  It is unnecessary to record each day’s proceedings through these wretched scrubs, as the record of “each dreary to-morrow but repeats the dull tale of to-day.”  But I may here remark that camels have a great advantage over horses in these dense wildernesses, for the former are so tall that their loads are mostly raised into the less resisting upper branches of the low trees of which these scrubs are usually composed, whereas the horses’ loads being so much nearer the ground have to be dragged through the stouter and stronger lower limbs of the trees.  Again, camels travel in one long single file, and where the leading camel forces his way the others all follow.  It is of great importance to have some good leading camels.  My arrangement for traversing these scrubs was as follows:—­Saleh on his riding gelding, the most lion-hearted creature in the whole mob, although Saleh was always beating or swearing at him in Hindostanee, led the whole caravan, which was divided into three separate lots; at every sixth there was a break, and one of the party rode ahead of the next six, and so on.  The method of leading was, when the scrubs permitted, the steersman would ride; if they were too thick for correct steering, he would walk; then a man riding or leading a riding camel to guide Saleh, who led the baggage mob.  Four of us used to steer.  I had taught Alec Ross, and we took an hour about, at a time.  Immediately behind Saleh came three bull camels loaded with casks of water, each cask holding twenty gallons.  These used to crash and smash down and through the branches, so that the passage was much clearer after them.  All the rest of the equipment, including water-beds, boxes, etc., was encased in huge leather bags, except one cow’s load; this, with the bags of flour on two other camels, was enveloped in green hide.  The fortunate rider at the extreme end had a somewhat open groove to ride