93 



large areas of desolating drought and almost undrinkable water ; 

 it ended up with scorching heat, mirage, and, early in October, 

 the great comet of 1858-9. 



While in Melbourne, in January, 1859, I arranged with 

 Mr. Sharpe, from whose station near Grafton I had travelled 

 with the last lot of cattle, to buy another lot of bullocks for the 

 Victorian market. I had to take delivery in February, therefore 

 left at once for Sydney by the s.s. Wonga Wonga. In Sydney 

 I engaged some of my old drovers and bovxght a number of 

 horses. We then took ship in the s.s. Collaroy for Raymond 

 Terrace, and travelled thence by the Port Stephens Road to New 

 England, where I secured more horses. We soon started north- 

 wards for the Clarence River, but instead of going to Aruiidale 

 kept a more easterly track from Dangar's Creek. From this 

 point we travelled to a station belonging to Hargraves, and on 

 the following day camped at Major Parke's station on the Guy- 

 fawkes River ; then we passed along some rugged country and 

 arrived at Peter Shea's inn on Cloud's Creek. At Nimboyda 

 we were delayed by the river which was running very 

 swiftly. At a spot where the channel was narrow a rope had 

 been stretched between two trees on either bank, and sitting in a 

 loup we were dragged across one by one ; each of us, where 

 the rope sagged most over the middle of the stream, was slightly 

 soused on the part of his body which hung lowest. On the 

 second afternoon we had to swim the horses across. Then we 

 arranged with Mr. Therold, the manager, to take a black boy as 

 guide across country to the Clarence Falls, some distance above 

 Grafton, as here we must cross the horses to the north side of 

 the Clarenca. The black boy was the best to be had at the time, 

 but as it turned out he knew nothing of the country. None of 

 us knew the country which in places was rather rough ; but one 

 of my men was a native of the district and a good bushman. 

 His general knowledge of the lay of the country proved most 

 valuable. We kept a pretty straight course, and struck a 

 station, owned by the McDougalls, in the afternoon. We dis- 

 carded our black guide here, and next morning George Davis 

 again took the lead across country. The Oorara River where 

 we crossed it was running very strong and only the biggest 

 horses could touch bottom ; but we got all over safely 

 and arrived at the crossing of the Clarence at the 

 place we had been making for. It was an ugly place to 

 tackle, for the river was running strong, the channel was very 



