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236 and herds except the curious foliage of the Xanthorrhoeas, usually called "blackboy grass." The mid-winter months, however, reinforced the country with fresh stores of both grass and water, and though, as I have said in the last chapter, the time was not favourable for making excursions of mere pleasure, there was no other so suitable for the dispatch of exploring parties in search of new sheep-runs, or in pursuit of still more important objects of discovery.

We were present at the departure of one such expedition, which was sent out in order to complete certain promising discoveries to the eastward which had been commenced the year before. On the former occasion the leader had succeeded in carrying his party across a rugged belt of rocky waterless ground, and through a wide track of almost impervious scrub, to a plain which had been described by the natives beforehand as abounding with emus and kangaroos. As the presence of these animals on any considerable extent of country is a certain proof of the existence of both grass and water, great hopes were entertained that the small plain of pasture land, upon which the adventurers had succeeded in arriving, would prove to be the commencement of a really valuable district.

Unfortunately the season was one of great drought, the winter rains had been confined to the country near the coast, and had not extended to the interior; the surface water had nearly all been dried up by the sun, so that at each water hole that could be discovered the supply was so scanty as to be barely sufficient for their wants. The plain itself seemed to be well watered in ordinary seasons, and the indications of the country around