THE COUNTRY FLOODED 237 



as I could see on every side had the appearance of a wide 

 lake, with here and there an island, where the ground was 

 high, rising from its surface. I thought that there could 

 not be any great depth of water on the land ; but it was 

 clearly converted for the present time into a wet quagmire 

 that would make very stiff riding. 



The rain had ceased, and the morning was fine, bright, 

 and not very warm. There was sufficient breeze blowing 

 from the north-west to ruffle the surface of the water and 

 give the waves the appearance of those of a great lake. 

 It was certain that there could not be any blacks about, 

 and with great difficulty I found the materials for making 

 a fire, and boiled a billyful of water for tea. An hour 

 later I saw a stream of smoke blowing from a hill similar 

 to the one I was on some five or six miles distant. It 

 was evident that the smoke of my fire had been seen by 

 the blacks of the district, and mistaken for a signal. 



Without loss of time I saddled the horse, and en- 

 deavoured to continue my ramble southward. At the 

 foot of the hill I found the water much deeper than I had 

 expected, and I soon found that I could not reach the 

 plain on the south side without swimming the horse over 

 very uncertain ground. In succession, I tried all sides of 

 the hill, and found my retreat completely cut off. That 

 the water was deep on the plain seemed to be proved by 

 the number of animals that I could perceive, as the day 

 advanced, had taken refuge on those spots of rising 

 ground which were not submerged. On my hill, the 

 superficial area of which could not have exceeded three 

 hundred acres, there were several emus, and a host of 

 kangaroos and wallabies. 



Often have I desired to shoot emus and bustards, and 

 found it impossible to get within range of those cautious 

 birds. Now, when it would have been cruel and useless to 

 slaughter them, I might have bagged nearly twenty. 

 Wallabies were so numerous, and so crowded together, 

 that I killed the two or three I needed for immediate use 

 with stones picked up on the hill-side. Rats and other 

 small animals swarmed all over the hill, as did lizards and 



