SINGULAR WELL. 
209 
it was drawn up in a bag, for a bucket could not be 
used in so contracted a space. As a spade could not 
be employed a large shell left by the natives was 
used for scooping up the dirt, which made the opera- 
tion both slow and tiresome. Our horses were 
dreadfully fagged and very thirsty after the severe 
toil they had endured in dragging the drays through 
so heavy a scrub, but with all our exertions we could 
only obtain from the spring about two buckets of 
water apiece for them. As this was not nearly 
enough to satisfy them, I was obliged to have them 
watched for the night to prevent their straying. The 
men had been kept incessantly at work from five in 
the morning until nearly ten at night, and the ad- 
ditional duty of watching the horses bore very hard 
upon them ; but they knew it to be necessary, and 
did it cheerfully. 
We had passed during our route through one or 
two of the small grassy openings so constantly met 
with even in the densest scrubs, and, as usual, I 
noticed upon these plains the remains of former 
scrub, where the trees were apparently of a larger 
growth than those now existing around. The soil 
too, from a loose sand, had become firmer and more 
united, and wherever the scrub had disappeared its 
place had been supplied by grass. This strongly 
confirmed my opinion, long ago formed, that those 
vast level wastes in Australia, now covered with low 
scrub, (and formerly, I imagine, the bed of the 
ocean,) are gradually undergoing a process of 
VOL. i. 
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