This, As May Be
Imagined, Came As A Surprise To Us; For A More Unlikely Thing To Find,
Considering The Dry State Of The Rock-Holes We Had Come Upon, Could Not
Have Been Suggested.
However, there it was; and very glad we were to see
it, and lost no time in making camp and hobbling the camels.
What a
glorious sight in this parched land! - so resting to the eye after days of
sand! How the camels wallowed in the fresh water! how they drank! and
what a grand feed they had on the herbage (TRICHINIUM ALOPECUROIDEUM) on
the banks of the lagoon! Charlie and I spent the afternoon in further
exploring our surroundings, and on return to camp found our mates busily
engaged in plucking some teal and waterhen which they had shot. The
latter were numerous, and Godfrey at one shot bagged nine. They are
almost identical in size and appearance with our British waterhen, though
they seem to have less power of flight, thus enabling us to drive them
from one gun to the other, and so secure a fine lot for the pot. I doubt
if in civilisation they would be considered good eating, but after tinned
horrors they were a perfect delicacy. The teal were as numerous; but
though there were several emu tracks we saw none of those queer birds.
Our bag for three days was seventeen teal, twelve waterhen, one pigeon.
The natives whose smoke we had seen, disappeared shortly after our
arrival.
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