342 RESTLESSNESS OF THE SHEEP. 
we should be better able to force a passage through 
the waste before us, at the same time that we should 
be able to procure a fresh and larger stock of water 
for ourselves. At midnight I sent the whole party 
back to the last water, but remained myself to take 
care of the baggage and sheep. I retained an al- 
lowance of a pint of water per day for six days, this 
being the contemplated period of the overseer’s ab- 
sence. My situation was not at all enviable, but 
circumstances rendered it unavoidable. 
From the departure of my party, until their re- 
turn, I spent a miserable time, being unable to leave 
the camp at all. Shortly after the party left, the 
sheep broke out of the yard, and missing the horses 
with which they had been accustomed to travel and 
to feed, set off as rapidly as they could after them ; 
I succeeded in getting them back, but they were 
exceedingly troublesome and restless, attempting to 
start off, or to get down to the sea whenever my eye 
was off them for an instant, and never feeding quietly 
for ten minutes together ; finding at last that they 
would be quite unmanageable, I made a very strong 
and high yard, and putting them in, kept them gene- 
rally shut up, letting them out only to feed for two 
or three hours at once. This gave me a little time 
to examine my maps, and to reflect upon my posi- 
tion and prospects, which involved the welfare of 
others, as well as my own. We had still 600 
miles of country to traverse, measured in straight 
lines across the chart ; but taking into account the 
