RUNNING WATER. 
39 
of improvement also gradually developed them- 
selves. Mountain ducks were now, for the first 
time, seen upon the shore, and the trunk of a very 
large tree was found washed up on the beach : it 
was the only one we had met with during the whole 
course of our journey to the westward, and I hailed 
it with a pleasure which was only equalled by finding, 
not far beyond, a few drops of water trickling down a 
huge granite rock abutting on the sea-shore. This was 
the only approximation to running water which we 
had found since leaving Streaky Bay, and though 
it hardly deserved that name, yet it imparted to me 
as much hope, and almost as much satisfaction, as if 
I had found a river. Continuing our course around 
a small bay for about five miles, we turned into 
some sand -drifts behind a rocky point of the coast, 
from which the islands we had seen yesterday bore 
E. 47° S., Cape Pasley, S. W., Point Malcolm, S. 
33° W., and Mount Ragged W. 32° N. Several reefs 
and breakers were also seen at no great distance 
from the shore. 
Our stage to-day was only twelve miles, yet some 
of our horses were nearly knocked up, and we our- 
selves in but little better condition. The incessant 
walking we were subject to, the low and unwhole- 
some diet we had lived upon, the severe and weaken- 
ing attacks of illness caused by that diet, having 
daily, and sometimes twice a day, to dig for water, to 
carry all our fire-wood from a distance upon our 
