OVERSEER RECONNOITRES THE CLIFFS. 383 
provision to the commencement of the cliffs to the 
westward, visible from the sand-hills near our camp, 
in order that they might ascertain the exact distance 
they were from us, and whether any grass or water 
could be procured nearer to their base than where 
we were. After their departure, I attended to the 
horses, and then amused myself preparing some 
fishing lines to set off the shore, with a large stone as 
an anchor, and a small keg for a buoy. The day 
was, however, wild and boisterous ; and in my 
attempts to get through the surf, to set the lines, I 
was thrown down, together with the large stone I 
was carrying, and my leg severely cut and bruised. 
The weather was extremely cold, too, and being 
without coat or jacket of any kind, I suffered se- 
verely from it. 
The 15th was another cold day, with the wind at 
south-west, and we could neither set the lines, nor 
spear sting-ray, whilst the supply we had before 
obtained was now nearly exhausted. One of the 
horses was taken ill, and unable to rise, from the 
effects of the cold ; his limbs were cramped and 
stiff, and apparently unable to sustain the weight of 
his body. After plucking dry grass, and making 
a bed for him, placing a breakwind of boughs round, 
and making a fire near him, we left him for the 
night. 
Late in the evening, the overseer and boy re- 
turned from the westward, and reported, that the 
cliffs were sixteen miles away ; that they had dug 
