CHARM OF DISCOVERY. 75 



from the north-west, and the thermometer went 

 down to 90^ I had scarcely secured observations 

 for latitude and longitude, before a squall from the 

 south-east, accompanied by heavy rain, recalled the 

 scene of last night. The same screams from the same 

 kind of birds, disturbed in their roosting places, 

 and the same mournful howling of the wind, as it 

 swept fitfully through the trees that overshadowed 

 us, broke the silence that had reigned around our 

 solitary fire, and exercised their wondrous power 

 over the imagination. In a few moments my 

 thouohts were borne on to the verv heart of this 

 mysterious country, over many a dreary plain, where 

 thirst, fatigue, and hunger were all forgotten. It 

 is impossible to define the exact nature of the charm 

 which particular minds find in the perils and adven- 

 tures of discovery, whether on the shore or o'er the 

 wave. Certain, however, it is, that scarce any 

 motive of human exertion can compete with it in 

 the powers of endurance it supplies to its votaries. 



The squall served to clear the air, and was suc- 

 ceeded by a cool breeze from the north-west. The 

 thermometer down to 87**. Yet cool, as compara- 

 tively speaking, the nights are here, still I could 

 not but remark that the ground never became so ; 

 and this I imagine to be one of the principal causes 

 of that fatigue from which some of our party suf- 

 fered so much : during my watches I invariably 

 noticed some poor fellow or another vainly trying to 

 secure the rest of which he stood so much in need : 



