SALT WATER. 
211 
abundant, but dreadfully salt, being little better than 
the sea water itself ; the horses and sheep however 
drank it greedily, as we had been able to give them 
but little of that received from the vessel. 
November 9. — Upon mustering the horses this 
morning I found they were looking so exhausted 
and jaded after the hard toil they had gone through 
in the last three days, that I could not venture to 
put them to work again to-day. I was consequently 
obliged to remain in camp, to rest both them and 
the men, all of whom were much fatigued. The 
well in the sand was even salter to-day than we had 
found it yesterday, and was quite unserviceable; 
the men had sunk the hole rather too deep, that 
they might get the water in greater abundance ; but 
when the tide rose it flowed in under the sand and 
spoiled the whole. As the water, even at the best, 
had been so salt that we could not use it ourselves, 
and as it was far from being wholesome for the 
horses, I did not think it worth while to give the 
men the fatigue of digging another hole. I there- 
fore put both horses and men upon a limited allow- 
ance, and got a cask containing sixty gallons from 
the cutter for our day’s supply. I also took the op- 
portunity of again lightening our loads by sending 
on board some more of the baggage and the light 
cart. This, by decreasing the number of our teams* 
would, I thought, enable me to change the horses 
occasionally in the others, and give me an extra 
man to assist in clearing a road through the scrub* 
p 2 
