THE INTERIOR OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 119 



reconnoitred in advance on such occasions, but in so fearful a country 

 delays were utterly inadmissible, and to have halted the party would 

 have been certain destruction to the whole. Thus were we hurried on 

 from day to day, without its being possible to give the wearied horses 

 that rest which was almost indispensable to their very existence. 



Travelling now became difficult in the extreme. To avoid sapling 

 thickets, 12 to 15 feet high, so closely packed that axes only could 

 have opened a passage, we were compelled to take a more circuitous 

 route round them, and to force a way through scrubs of a more 

 yielding character. These were frequently so dense, that at the dis- 

 tance of three or four feet no part of a horse could be seen, and the 

 greatest care and watchfulness were necessary to kieep them close to- 

 gether and in line. This work however could not last long, and when 

 half-way to the granite hill, four of the horses gave convincing proofs 

 of their inability to proceed another mile, by streaming out in those 

 profuse cold sweats which are always the forerunner of a complete and 

 fatal break-up. Thankful for the w^arning, the party was halted, the 

 complaining horses unloaded, and arrangements immediately made for 

 leaving behind everything that could possibly be dispensed with, in- 

 cluding the whole of our salt meat, which had formed the entire load 

 of one horse. But it was no easy matter to decide what, in our situ- 

 ation, could best be abandoned, our equipment being as light as pos- 

 sible, and not a single article carried that could in auy view be deemed 

 superfluous. Some little time was necessarily occupied in completing 

 these aiTangements, and our salt meat was about to be triced up to the 

 trees destined to receive it, when the horses appeared so much revived 

 by their short respite, that I resolved to make one more trial to get on, 

 without the adoption of measures which might materially cripple the ul- 

 timate proceedings of the expedition. . Distributing the loads therefore 



* 



in proportion to the ability to carry weight, and every horse carrying a 

 pack, we cheered them on as well as we could, kept them all moving 

 and in close line, and late in the afternoon halted at the foot of the 

 hill where we had hoped to obtain relief. Here however we again 

 met w^ith nothing but cruel disappointment : not a blade of grass was 

 to be found either over or around the hill, and a flattering appearance 

 of water proved to be a mere trickling over a large bare granite sheet, 

 scarcely sufficient to wet its surface. Encamping among some rushes 

 and scrub at this spot, in the vain hope of procuring water with our 



