TIMOR PONY ABANDONED. 
353 
into the sea itself, on, which occasions it required our 
utmost vigilance to prevent the wretched horses 
from drinking the salt water, which would inevit- 
ably have destroyed them. In order to prevent this 
we were obliged to walk ourselves in the water, on 
the sea-side of them, one of the party being in ad- 
vance, leading one horse, another being behind to 
keep up the rear, and the other three being at intervals 
along the outside of the line, to keep them from 
stopping for an instant until the danger was past. 
We had scarcely advanced six miles from our last 
night’s camp when the little Timor pony I had 
purchased at Port Lincoln broke down completely ; 
for some time it had been weak, and we were 
obliged to drive it loose, but it was now unable to 
proceed further, and we were compelled to abandon 
it to a miserable and certain death, that by pushing 
on, we might use every exertion in our power to 
relieve the others, though scarcely daring to hope 
that we could save even one of them. It was, 
indeed, a fearful and heart-rending scene to behold 
the noble animals which had served us so long and 
so faithfully, suffering the extremity of thirst and 
hunger, without havingit in our power to relieve them. 
Five days of misery had passed over their heads since 
the last water had been left, and one hundred and 
twelve miles of country had been traversed with- 
out the possibility of procuring food for them, other 
than the dry and sapless remains of last year’s 
grass, and this but rarely to be met with. No rains 
2 A 
VOL. I. 
