322 RED-WINGED COCKATOOS. 
vessel on this wild and breaker-beaten shore. There 
was nothing to indicate its size, or name, or the 
period when the wreck occurred. 
No recent traces of natives having been either at 
Yeerkurnban kauwe, or the more distant water, were 
visible anywhere, and I imagined they might per- 
haps have made an excursion to the westward. A 
large flight of red-winged cockatoos were seen to- 
day hovering around the sand-hills, and appearing 
quite disconcerted at finding us in possession of the 
water ; we had not before seen them in the neighbour- 
hood, and I can hardly conjecture where they go to 
from this place, for generally they are birds fond of 
water. 
Knowing from the accounts of the natives that 
upon leaving Yeerkurnban kauwe, I should have a 
task before me of no ordinary difficulty to get either 
the sheep or the horses to the next water, I deter- 
mined to proceed myself in advance, with the sheep ? 
that by travelling slowly, at the same time that we 
kept steadily advancing, every chance might be 
given to them of accomplishing the journey in 
safety. I was anxious too to precede my party, in 
order that by finding out where the water was, I 
might be on the look out for them, to guide them to 
it, and that thus when in their greatest difficulty, no 
time should be lost in searching for water. Having 
given the overseer orders to keep the tracks of my 
horses, when he had travelled about seventy miles 
along the coast, I set off on the 7th March, with 
