The Dogs Killed A Pretty Large Emu, Which Was A Most Luxurious Addition
To Our Salt Pork, Of Which Alone We Were All Well Satiated.
I ascended
the range behind the tent, and I never saw a more broken country, or one
more barren.
It appeared more open to the north-north-west, to which
point our course will be directed to-morrow.
June 21. - Fine mild weather: at eight o'clock set forward on our
journey. The farther we proceed north-westerly, the more convinced I am
that, for all the practical purposes of civilized man, the interior of
this country westward of a certain meridian is uninhabitable, deprived
as it is of wood, water, and grass. With respect to water, it is quite
impossible that any can be retained on such a soil as the country is
composed of, and no watercourses, for the same reason, can be formed;
for, like a sponge, it absorbs all the rain that falls, which, judging
from every appearance, cannot be much. The wandering native with his
little family may find a precarious subsistence in the ruts with which
the country abounds; but even he, with all the local knowledge which
such a life must give him, is obliged to dig with immense labour little
wells at the bottom of the hills to procure and preserve a necessary of
life which is evidently not to be obtained by any other method.
We proceeded through a broken irregular country for nearly six miles,
when the evident weakness of the horses made it highly imprudent to
attempt to proceed farther.
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