The Weather Was Very Hot During The Day, But A Cool
Breeze Moved Over The Plains, And The Night, As Usual, Was Very Cold.
Yesterday morning, John and Brown rode down to a hollow to look for
water, whilst we were waiting for the bullocks.
At their return, they
stated that they had come to two salt-water creeks, all full of salt, of
which they brought several lumps. I started immediately with Mr. Calvert
and Brown, and, sure enough! I found the broad bed of a creek one mass of
the purest and whitest salt. Lumps of it had crystallized round stems of
grasses which the wind had blown into the water. A little higher up the
creek, a large pool of water was full of these lumps, and in less than
ten minutes we collected more than sufficient to supply us for the rest
of the journey. Ship loads of pure salt could have been collected here in
a very short time, requiring nothing but drying and housing, until it
could be removed. Its appearance was quite new and wonderful to me, who
had been so busily employed in scraping the incrustations full of mud
from the dry beds of the creeks.
Yesterday, Brown shot a black-winged pelican; the pectoral muscles and
the extremities of which proved good eating; but the inside and the fat
were of a nauseously fishy taste. Charley shot a bustard, and John a
black ibis. The smoke of the Black-fellows' fires was seen to the
southward.
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