84 Expedition^ £i?c, 



duced probably by cold and inanition. He was somewhat 

 relieved by the free use of opium and whiskey. 



We left our comfortless camp at an early hour on the en- 

 suing morning, and traversing a wide plain strewed with 

 fragments of greenstone, amygdaloid, and the vessicular sub- 

 stance already mentioned as the pumice stone of Bradbury, 

 we arrived in the middle of the day, in sight of a creek, 

 which like all water courses of this region, occupies the bot- 

 tom of a deep and almost inaccessible valley; with the cus- 

 tomary difficulty and danger, we at length found our way 

 down to the stream, and encamped. 



We were much concerned, but by no means surprised, to 

 discover that our horses were rapidly failing under the se- 

 vere services they were now made to perform; we had been 

 often compelled to encamp without a sufficiency of grass, and 

 the rocky ways, to which we had for some time accustomed 

 them, were destroying their hoofs. Several were becoming 

 lame, and all much exhausted and weakened. 



Verplank, our faithful and indefatigable hunter, was so for- 

 tunate, as to kill a black-tailed deer, at a distance from our 

 course. A horse was, however, sent for the remainder of 

 the meat, (Verplank having brought the greater part of it on 

 his shoulders^ and we once more enjoyed the luxury of a full 

 meal. 



