196 
UNION OF THE PARTY. 
water muscle is eaten in great numbers by all the 
natives of New South Wales and South Australia ; 
but Captain Grey found that a Perth native, who 
accompanied him on one of his expeditions, would 
not touch this kind of food even when almost 
starving. Snakes are eaten by some tribes, but not 
by others ; and so with many other kinds of food 
which they make use of. 
About three o’clock, Mr. Scott arrived with the 
dray, after a long and harassing stage of twenty 
miles over a low, stony, and scrubby tract of 
country, between Mount Hall and Streaky Bay, 
and which extended beyond our track to the coast 
hummocks to the west. These latter appeared 
somewhat high, and under them we had seen many 
salt-water lakes from the summit of Mount Hall. 
My party were now once more all assembled 
together, after having been separated for nearly seven 
weeks ; during which, neither division knew what 
had befallen the other, and both were necessarily 
anxious to be reunited again, since, in the event of 
any mischance occurring to either, the other would 
have been placed in circumstances of much diffi- 
culty, if not of danger ; and the whole object of the 
undertaking would have been frustrated. 
The great delay caused by my having been obliged 
to send over from Port Lincoln to Adelaide for sup- 
plies, had thrown us very late in the season ; the 
summer was rapidly advancing, the weather even 
now, being frequently intensely hot, whilst the grass 
