' Nov. 10, 1856.] NORTH AUSTRALIAN EXPEDITION, 185 



Here I learned that the schooner had got aground about eight 

 miles below Curiosity Hill, on the 27th September, and had not yet 

 been got afloat, though the tide had driven her over several banks ; 

 that she had sustained much injury, and leaked so much that a 

 large quantity of the stores was damaged. 



The following day I proceeded down the river in one of the boats, 

 and reached the ' Tom Tough ' on the 22nd. 



The schooner had not moved for some days, and the leaks were in 

 some degree lessened by nailing battens and tarred blankets over 

 the seams, which had opened. Being bedded 4 feet in the sand, I 

 could not examine her bottom, though the bank was diy at three - 

 quarter ebb. 



Several of the deck-beams were fractured, and there were many 

 indications of her being much strained, by the tide having worked 

 deep holes at the bow and stern, and then leaving her dry on a 

 narrow bank amidships. 



The tides were too low to float her till the 24:th, after which every 

 succeeding tide carried the vessel a short distance higher up the 

 river, and on the 27th she cleared the banks and reached Sandy 

 Island. On the 29th, she moored at the camp, where there was a 

 convenient spot for discharging the cargo and repairing the vessel. 



On examining the schooner, the keelson was found to be broken 

 near the mainmast, three of the deck beams broken, and nearly all 

 the knees which secure the deck much strained from their places. 

 The buts of several of the planks were started, and much of the 

 copper torn ofi". 



There having been on several occasions, 3 feet of water in the 

 vessel's hold, much of the cargo was damaged ; more than half the 

 bread, sugar, and other dry provisions belonging to the vessel being 

 wholly destroyed. The stores belonging to the Expedition, from 

 being more carefully packed, did not sufier so much ; about haK 

 a ton of flour, the same quantity of rice, 3 cwt. of salt, and 8 cwt. 

 of sugar being destroyed, besides which, many packages of stores 

 were damaged b}^ the water leaking through the deck. 



The greatest loss, however, which the Expedition has sustained, 

 is the large number of sheep which have perished, owing to the 

 long destitution on board the schooner. Out of 161 sheep embarked 

 at Point Pearce, only 44 reached the camp with sufficient vitality to 

 recover. 



The early part of November was devoted to erecting a store, and 

 discharging cargo from the vessel, preparatory to repairing her. 



This being the driest season of the year, the horses had not im- 

 proved sufficiently in condition to fit them for work. On the 15th 



