CH. III.] RESOLVE TO PROCEED BY LAND. 57 



mise a successful voyage down the river, but our hopes were 

 doomed to be of short duration, for as I again awaited the 

 re-appearance of the second boat, a shout similar to the first 

 again rose, and on running across the intervening land within 

 the river bend, I found her once more on the point of going 

 down, from similar damage sustained in the starboard bow. 

 It was now near five p. m., and the labours of the day had 

 been sufficient to convince me that the course of the Nam- 

 moy could be much more conveniently traced at that time 

 by a journey on land, than with boats of canvass on the water. 

 We pitched our tents ; and on plotting my work I found we 

 were distant, in a direct line, only about two miles from 

 Bullabalakit. 



Dec. 30. — The cattle from the depot camp, arrived at nine 

 A. M., four men having been sent there early this moniing, 

 to bring them with the carts and horses to the place where 

 we had disembarked. The tea, sugar, and biscuit, having 

 got wet in the sunken boat, I was compelled to halt this day, 

 in order to dry these articles if possible, in the sun, and the 

 heat being very intense, we were tolerably successful. The 

 sugar, in a liquid state, was laid out in small quantities 

 on tarpaulins ; the tea was also spread out thinly before the 

 sun, and thrown about frequently — and thus we were ena- 

 bled, by the evening, to pack it up quite dry in canisters ; 

 the whole having lost in weight two and a half pounds. 

 The sugar had crystallised sufficiently to be put up again, 

 without any danger of fermentation. During many days, 

 I had anxiously watched the smoky red hot sky, for some 

 appearance of rain : no dew nourished the grass, which had 

 become quite yellow, and the river upon which I set my hopes 

 was rapidly drying up. In my tent, the thermometer gene- 

 rally reached 100° of Farenheit during the day, At length 

 the welcome sound of thunder was heard, and dark clouds 

 cooled the atmosphere long before sunset. These clouds at 

 length poured a heavy shower on the yawning earth ; flakes 

 of ice or hail accompanied it, and we enjoyed a cool draught 



