INTENSE HEAT. 
397 
efficiently the duties devolving upon us, and make 
those exertions which our exigences might require, 
I deemed it only right that we should sometimes be 
assisted by the two elder boys, in a task which we 
had before always found to be the most disagreeable 
and fagging of any, that of watching the horses at 
night, after a long and tiring day’s journey. 
On the morning of the 29th we moved away very 
early, passing over a rocky level country, covered 
with low brush, and very fatiguing to both ourselves 
and our horses. The morning was gloomy and 
close, and the day turned out intensely hot. After 
travelling only fifteen miles we were compelled to 
halt until the greatest heat was passed. Our stock 
of water and provisions only admitted of our 
making two meals in the day, breakfast and supper ; 
but as I intended this evening to travel great part of 
the night, we each made our meal now instead of 
later in the day, that we might not be delayed when 
the cool of the evening set in. We had been 
travelling along the summit of the cliffs parallel 
with the coast line, and had found the country level 
and uniform in its character ; the cliffs still being 
from two to three hundred feet in elevation, and of 
the same formation as I noticed before. There were 
patches of grass scattered among the scrub at inter- 
vals, but all were old and withered. 
At four in the afternoon we again proceeded on 
our journey, but had not gone far before the sky 
