SAND AND FLIES. 
321 
dipped, my occupation was neither a light nor a 
short one. Having completed my work, I killed a 
sheep, well knowing the party would be fatigued 
and hungry, when they came up. About three 
they made their appearance, and thus, upon the 
whole, we had very successfully got over this our 
first push, and were soon very comfortably esta- 
blished at “ Yeerkumban kauwe.” The holes I had 
dug enabled us easily and speedily to water the 
horses, and the sheep I had killed afforded a refresh- 
ing meal to the overseer and boys, after their haras- 
sing journey. In the afternoon the sand ble^w about 
in a most annoying manner, covering us from head 
to foot, and filling everything we put down, if but 
for an instant. This sand had been our constant 
torment for many weeks past ; condemned to live 
among the sand-hills for the sake of procuring water, 
we were never free from irritation and inconvenience. 
It floated on the surface of the water, penetrated 
into our clothes, hair, eyes, and ears, our provisions 
were covered over with it, and our blankets half 
buried when we lay down at nights,— it was a perpe- 
tual and never-ceasing torment, and as if to increase 
our miseries we were again afflicted with swarms of 
large horse-flies, which bit us dreadfully. On the 
4th, we remained in camp to rest the horses, and I 
walked round to reconnoitre. Upon the beach I 
found the fragments of a wreck, consisting of part 
of a mast, a tiller wheel, and some copper sheathings, 
the last sad records of the fate of some unfortunate 
VOL. i. 
Y 
