Having thus secured the horses and bullocks, I turned my attention to the men in the forest, with regard to whom I had no occasion to feel any alarm, as I had left ten gallons of water for their use, and strictly cautioned them not to be improvident with it.  However, as soon as he had had a little rest, I sent Morgan with a spare horse for their empty casks to replenish them.  At 2 o’clock I sent Flood with four gallons of water to the nearest bullock that had fallen.  About 11 Brock came up with the sheep all safe and well.  Flood returned at 7, with information that the bullock was dead, but night closed in without our seeing anything of Morgan, and having nothing to eat we looked out rather anxiously for him.  The water on which we rested was at some little distance from the creek, in a long narrow lagoon, but we had scarcely any shade from the intense heat of the sun, the water being muddy, thick, and full of frogs and crabs.  I have observed upon the extreme and increasing heat that prevailed at this time.  Notwithstanding this, however, the night was so bitterly cold that we were glad to put on anything to keep us warm.  Our situation may in some measure account for this extreme variation of temperature, as we were in the bed of the creek which might yet have been damp, as its surface had only just dried up; perhaps also from exposure to such heat during the day we were more susceptible of the least change.  Be that as it may, certain it is that as morning dawned on this occasion, when the thermometer stood at 67 degrees, we crept nearer to our fires for warmth, and in less than six hours afterwards were in a temperature of 104 degrees.

As we passed through the acacia scrub, we observed that the natives had lately been engaged collecting the seed.  The boughs of the trees were all broken down, and there were numerous places where they had thrashed out the seed, and heaped up the pods.  These poor people must indeed be driven to extremity if forced to subsist on such food, as its taste is so disagreeable that one would hardly think their palates could ever be reconciled to it.  Natives had evidently been in our neighbourhood very lately, but we saw none.

At this time I was exceedingly anxious both about Mr. Poole and Mr. Browne, who were neither of them well.  The former particularly complained of great pain, and I regretted to observe that he was by no means strong.

About 10 o’clock on the morning of the last day of the year 1844, I was with Tampawang at the head of the lagoon, trying to capture one of the building rats, a nest of which we had found under a polygonum bush.  We had fired the fabric, and were waiting for the rats to bolt, when we saw Morgan riding up to us.  He stopped when he got to the water, and throwing himself on the ground drank long at it.  Seeing that he came without anything for which he had been sent, I began to apprehend some misfortune; but on questioning him I learnt that he had been at