KILL ONE OF THE SHEEP* 
347 
allowance of flour was very small, and the fatigue 
and exertion we were all obliged to undergo very 
great, I ordered a sheep to be killed before we moved 
on again. We had been upon short allowance for 
some time, and were getting weak and hardly able 
to go through the toils that devolved upon us. Now, 
I knew that our safety depended upon that of our 
horses, and that their lives again were contingent 
upon the amount of fatigue we were ourselves able 
to endure, and the degree of exertion we were 
capable of making to relieve them in extremity. I 
did not therefore hesitate to make use of one of our 
three remaining sheep to strengthen us for coming 
trials, instead of retaining them until perhaps they 
might be of little use to us. The whole party had 
a hearty meal, and then, watching the horses until 
midnight, we moved on when the moon rose. 
During the morning we had passed along an 
extensive dried-up salt swamp behind the coast 
ridge, which was soft for the horses in some places, 
but free from that high brush which fatigued them 
so much, and which now appeared to come close in to 
the sea, forming upon the high sandy ridges a dense 
scrub. The level bank of the higher ground, or 
continuation of the cliffs of the Bight, which had 
heretofore been distinctly visible at a distance of ten 
or twelve miles inland, could no longer be seen : it 
had either merged in the scrubb}^ and sandy eleva- 
tions around us, or was hid by them from our view. 
March 27. —During the night we travelled slowly 
