ALONE IN THE DESERT 23 



recurred to me and increased my disquietude, for I was 

 very young (under twenty years) and inexperienced. After 

 the lapse of some hours, I found that I had wandered back 

 to the spot where the dead horse lay, and I remembered 

 having heard that it was the invariable course of an in- 

 experienced person to move in a circle. I remembered 

 also that the real bushman is said never to fall into this 

 fatal error, and I recalled the rules laid down for circum- 

 stances similar to those in which I found myself. With 

 some effort of will I recovered self-control, and sat down 

 for a little time to think. I decided that I was more likely 

 to reach home than to succeed in returning to Dubbo, and 

 as I could not tell my precise bearings, I started westward, 

 knowing that this direction would bring me to the river, 

 on reaching which I should have no difficulty in finding 

 my way to the station. 



My equipment for this long tramp of sixty miles con- 

 sisted of my water-bag, a pipe, with a pinch or two of 

 tobacco, a box of matches, and a fowling-piece and partially 

 emptied powder-flask and shot-belt. I had also a little tea 

 and sugar, but no other food. 



Endeavouring to keep a stout heart I tried to find the 

 river, knowing that this was my nearest way home, and 

 that by following its course I should be sure of an abundant 

 supply of water. I felt confident that I should reach the 

 station before hunger could greatly weaken me ; but when 

 night fell upon the land I had not yet reached the river. 

 Walking was very laborious work. The grass was high 

 and the herbage thick, and my progress, in consequence, 

 slow and very tiring too. 



Ducks sometimes flew over my head, and I several 

 times fired at them, but did not kill any of them, and I 

 had to resort to the example of the native blackfellows, 

 and satisfy my hunger with roasted fern-roots. I lay all 

 night on the ground, and being now very tired, slept 

 soundly. The fire went out, and I awoke at dawn stiff 

 with cold, for the nights are often very chilly on these 

 plains, and on this night there was a slight frost. 



My water was now expended. I did not suffer from 



