Page:Tracks of McKinlay and party across Australia.djvu/139

 of his mess to add to the comfort of ours.

I must here digress a little, and tell the reader what rations were allowed us per week, so that as we go on he may see how we go down in the scale (I don't wish to pun on such a serious subject) as we proceeded on our journey. Each man per week: sugar 2 lb., tea 4 oz., flour 8 lb., mutton and bacon as much as we liked. Saved flour, but nothing else; sugar was gone before the week was out often.

22nd. We shot sixteen ducks fit for an alderman's table (he is proverbially a good judge). They were of several kinds, the common, the wood duck, and various descriptions of teal. If it was not a jolly supper, I don't know what constitutes one; but oh! for a glass or a dozen of "Arthur," or Byass, or Alsopp, or Bass, for the ducks to swim in. Notwithstanding this hiatus valde deflensus in the repast, I don't think that just then any one had a care, or wished for a more jovial evening than this, for we sung ourselves to roost.

23rd. Awfully hot day, and no wind to help us. We read to-day the story of poor Kennedy's sad exploring expedition. Poor fellow! perhaps we may all of us share the same fate as his companions, who all died or were killed, like himself, on their perilous journey, with the exception of a