- Our cattle and our horses, with the exception of those we had
used the night before, had strayed in search of water; but Charley found
them on the sow-thistle plains, beyond our last camp.
Messrs. Calvert,
Murphy, and Brown, came in early this morning; they had lost their way in
the dark, in consequence of remaining too long at the water-hole. They
informed me that they had passed the night on an open piece of forest
ground along a creek. This intelligence induced me to examine the
locality: I therefore went with Brown, and found the creek, with a deep
sandy, but dry bed, full of reeds; its direction being from south by west
to north by east. I followed it up about eight miles, when the scrub
receded from its left bank, and a fine open extensive flat stretched to
the westward. I looked into the Casuarina thickets which occasionally
fringed its bank, in search of water; but found none. I was frequently on
the point of returning, but, induced by the presence of reeds, continued
the search, until the scrub again approached the right side of the creek;
and, in one of those chains of ponds which almost invariably exist at the
outside of these scrubs, a small pool of water was found. This gave me
fresh confidence, and I was eagerly examining the creek, when Brown
exclaimed, "Plenty of water, sir! plenty of water!" and a magnificent
lagoon, surrounded by a rich belt of reeds, lay before us.
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