The Horses Fell Repeatedly In The Course Of The Day,
And They Were Now So Weak That They Sank At Every Soft Place.
Between
four and five o'clock, after travelling about ten hours, we stopped at a
small drain of water for the night, having accomplished nearly eleven
miles.
In our track we saw no signs of natives, and the country seemed
abandoned of every living thing. Silence and desolation reigned around.
August 18. - It is impossible to describe in adequate language the
different trying obstructions we encountered during this day's journey:
after meeting and overcoming many minor difficulties of bog and
quicksand, we had accomplished nearly eleven miles, and were looking out
for a place to rest, when we entered a very thick forest of small iron
barks which had been lately burnt; and their black stems and branches,
with the dull bluish colour of their foliage, gave the whole a
singularly dismal and gloomy appearance. So thick was the forest that we
could hardly turn our horses, nor could the sun's rays penetrate to the
sandy desert on which these trees grew. Without the usual appearances of
a bog, our horses were in an instant up to their bellies, and the
difficulties we had in extricating them would hardly obtain belief. In
this dilemma, scarcely able to see which way to turn, we traversed the
margin of this extensive quicksand for nearly three miles in a direction
contrary to our course, before we could find firm ground or water for
the horses, which we did not effect till sunset; and then (as for the
last three days) there was nothing for them to eat but prickly grass,
which possesses no nourishing qualities. This fare, after their hard
labour, reduces them daily.
August 19. - After wandering about the whole day without gaining any
thing on our course, for the quicksands kept us revolving as it were in
a circle, the exhaustion of the horses obliged us to stop. It was
painful to behold them, after being disencumbered of their loads, lay
themselves down like dogs about us: it was the fourth day that they had
been without grass, and they preferred the tender branches of shrubs,
etc., to the prickly grass. The backs of the greater part of them were,
notwithstanding every care, dreadfully galled, so that they could, when
first saddled, scarcely stand under their burdens. These quicksands lie
in the hollows between the low irregular hills, which rise on this
otherwise level country: their point of discharge is uniformly
north-westerly. The union of many of these minor drains forms
occasionally a large one, and the points of the hills which meet upon
them afford the only means of crossing them. It was evident that the
early part of the winter had been very wet., and the late rains had
probably been the cause of these morasses, which still continued to
drain themselves off in running water. This region must at all times be
impassable from opposite causes:
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