LOSS OF A HORSE. 
133 
and thus both to avoid a good deal of rough ground, 
and to shorten the road considerably. 
Upon mustering the horses on the 9th, the over- 
seer reported to me that one of them was lying down 
with a broken leg, and upon going to examine him, 
I found that it was one of the police horses kindly 
lent to the expedition by the Governor. During 
the night some other horse had kicked him and 
broken the thigh bone of the hind leg. The poor 
animal was in great pain and unable to rise at all, 
I was therefore obliged to order the overseer to 
shoot him. By this accident we lost a most useful 
horse at a time when we could but ill spare one. 
During our progress to the south we had fre- 
quently showers and occasionally heavy rains, which 
lodging in puddles on the plains, supplied us 
abundantly with water, and we were unusually for- 
tunate enough to obtain grass also. We were thus 
enabled to push on upon nearly a straight course, 
which, after seven days of hard travelling, brought 
us once more, on the afternoon of the 12th, to our 
old position at the depot near Mount Arden. I had 
intended to have halted the party here for a day or 
two, to recruit after the severe march we had just 
terminated ; but the weather was so favourable and 
the season so far advanced, that I did not like 
to lose an hour in following out my prospec- 
tive plans. 
During the homeward journey from the Mundy, 
1 had reflected much on the position in which I 
