I found all the horses in excellent condition, and one, a very fine mare of my own, had foaled about six weeks before.  Around the camp were immense piles of oyster shells, pretty plainly indicating the feasting my men had enjoyed during my absence, whilst their strong and healthy appearance shewed how well such fare had agreed with them.  The oysters were procured from the most southerly bight of Streaky Bay, on some mud banks about two or three hundred yards below low water mark, where they are found in immense numbers and of different sizes.  The flavour of these oysters was excellent, and the smaller ones were of great delicacy.  The men were in the habit of taking a cart down to the beach frequently, where, by wading up to their knees in the sea at low water, they were enabled to fill it.  This supply lasted for two or three days.

Many drays might easily be loaded, one after the other, from these oyster beds.  The natives of the district do not appear to eat them, for I never could find a single shell at any of their encampments.  It is difficult to account for the taste or prejudice of the native, which guides him in his selection or rejection of particular kinds of food.  What is eaten readily by the natives in one part of Australia is left untouched by them in another, thus the oyster is eaten at Sydney, and I believe King George’s Sound, but not at Streaky Bay.  The unio or freshwater muscle is eaten in great numbers by all the natives of New South Wales and South Australia; but Captain Grey found that a Perth native, who accompanied him on one of his expeditions, would not touch this kind of food even when almost starving.  Snakes are eaten by some tribes, but not by others; and so with many other kinds of food which they make use of.

About three o’clock, Mr. Scott arrived with the dray, after a long and harassing stage of twenty miles over a low, stony, and scrubby tract of country, between Mount Hall and Streaky Bay, and which extended beyond our track to the coast hummocks to the west.  These latter appeared somewhat high, and under them we had seen many salt-water lakes from the summit of Mount Hall.

My party were now once more all assembled together, after having been separated for nearly seven weeks; during which, neither division knew what had befallen the other, and both were necessarily anxious to be reunited again, since, in the event of any mischance occurring to either, the other would have been placed in circumstances of much difficulty, if not of danger; and the whole object of the undertaking would have been frustrated.

The great delay caused by my having been obliged to send over from Port Lincoln to Adelaide for supplies, had thrown us very late in the season; the summer was rapidly advancing, the weather even now, being frequently intensely hot, whilst the grass was gradually drying up and losing its nourishment.  Our sending to Adelaide had, however, obtained for us the valuable services of the Waterwitch to assist us in tracing round the desert line of coast to the north-west, and had enabled us to procure a larger and more varied supply of stores, than we could possibly have brought up from Port Lincoln in a single dray.  We were now amply furnished with conveniences of every kind; and both men and horses were in good plight and ready to enter upon the task before them.