KNOCKED DOWN BY A HORSE. 
61 
seen any where. At night the flies and mosquitoes 
were very troublesome to us. 
May 31. — The morning showery, and bitterly 
cold, so that, for the first two hours after starting, 
we suffered considerably. After travelling for seven 
miles and a half, through an undulating and bare 
country, we came to a salt-water river, with some 
patches of good land about it. Having crossed the 
river a little w T ay up where it became narrower, we 
again proceeded for five miles farther, through the 
same character of country, and were then stopped 
by another salt stream, which gave us a great deal 
of trouble to effect a crossing. We had traced it up 
to where the channel was narrow, but the bed was 
very deep, and the water running strongly between 
banks of rich black soil. Our horses would not face 
this at first, and in forcing them over we were 
nearly losing two of them. After travelling only 
a quarter of a mile beyond this stream I was cha- 
grined to find we had crossed it just above the 
junction of two branches, and that we had still one 
of them to get over ; the second was even more 
difficult to pass than the first, and whilst I was on 
the far side, holding one of the horses by a rope, with 
Wylie behind driving him on, the animal made a 
sudden and violent leap, and coming full upon me, 
knocked me down and bruised me considerably. 
One of his fore legs struck me on the thigh, and I 
narrowly escaped having it broken, whilst a hind 
leg caught me on the shin, and cut me severely. 
