Page:Tracks of McKinlay and party across Australia.djvu/146

 repairing the damaged tents, putting them up, and drying all our goods, etc. The only thing dry was the nest of stores covered with tarpaulin. Laid some poisoned baits for the wild dogs. Flies here by thousands, ants millions; flies in soup and the ants in the tea. It is too bad, I was going to say terrible; in a spoonful of soup you would get, I will not say how many—for fear the reader might think I was telling a traveller's tale—but this I must and will say, that if you stopped you would get no soup at all, for they (the flies) came in as fast as you could take them out.

31st. All of us employed in various ways to make our stay here comfortable, as we shall remain till the party returns from Blanchewater, probably more than six weeks. Three of the poisoned baits taken, and found two wild dogs quite dead, and we also lost our own dog Wallace; he must have got hold of one of the baits which had not been taken up, or else one must have fallen from the stump of the tree where they were placed for safety; he died about 5, and was buried in a clump of trees a little south of our camp, the first, and I trust the last, of Mr. McKinlay's party.

To-day we plant a lot of seeds—melon, peach, plum, and apricot, also some pumpkin. I hope they will grow, as they will be a boon to any poor fellows who may follow us.