OPPRESSIVE HEAT. 273 
of water, he might not disturb ours, or leave traces 
by which the natives could discover it. 
January 6. — Sending back the dray with the 
overseer, at the first dawn of day, I and the native 
boy proceeded to the north-west, accompanied by 
the man leading a pack-horse with twelve gallons of 
water. The day turned out hot, and the road was over 
a very heavy sandy country ; but by eleven o’clock 
we had accomplished a distance of seventeen miles, 
and had reached the furthest point from which I 
turned back on the 1st December. I walked alter- 
nately with the boy, so as not to oppress the riding 
horses, but the man walked all the way. 
The weather was most intensely hot, a strong 
wind blowing from the north-east, throwing upon us 
an oppressive and scorching current of heated air, 
like the hot blast of a furnace. There was no mis- 
understanding the nature of the country from 
which such a wfind came ; often as I had been 
annoyed by the heat, I had never experienced any 
thing like it before. Had anything been wanting 
to confirm my previous opinion of the arid and 
desert character of the great mass of the interior of 
Australia, this wind would have been quite suffi- 
cient for that purpose. From those who differ from 
me in opinion (and some there are who do so whose 
intelligence and judgment entitle their opinion to 
great respect), I would ask, could such a wind be 
be wafted over an inland sea ? or could it have 
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