8 
JOURNEY FROM 
manner in which the mouse burrows in the earth, 
strikes with his tail against the one hole to frighten 
the little animal, while he watches with open 
mouth the other to receive him on his exit. If 
this artifice does not succeed, he howls to call his 
fellows to his assistance. 
It is reported, that in this part of the country 
the male of certain kinds of birds alone builds the 
nest. When he has finished the work, it is exa- 
mined by the female ; should it not please her, 
she tears it to pieces, and her obedient mate 
builds another. 
At noon, on the 4th of February, the timbers of 
the waggons became so heated that they could 
not be touched ; the thermometer stood at 100. 
At half-past three p. m. we proceeded on our 
journey ; the thunder, which from noon had been 
rolling around us, came nearer, loud peals broke 
over our heads, attended with much forked light- 
ning, which continued for two hours without in- 
termission. At ten in the evening we crossed the 
Buffalo River, that runs into the Elephant's River, 
and at half past one in the morning we halted at 
the side of the Helbeck River, in the bed of whieh 
we found water. 
Daylight discovered, about two hundred yards 
from the waggons, the solitary graves of three 
