Page:Tracks of McKinlay and party across Australia.djvu/185

 of the whites), four camels, three horses, 160 lb. flour, 32 lb. sugar, 4 lb. tea, 11 lb. bacon, and some little necessaries, etc., for persons likely to be in a weak state. Leave Bell in charge of the arrangements of the camp, Davis in charge of the stores. About twenty natives are encamped within pistol shot; but have made a fold for the sheep, and put everything in such a shape that I may find things all right on my return. Opened the sausages, and found them all less or more damaged; one tin, in fact, as nearly rotten as possible, which had to be thrown away; the others are now drying in the sun in the hope we may be able to use them. We would have been in a sad fix without the sheep.

18th. At 8, started; crossed well-grassed flooded polygonum flats or plains, for an hour, crossing Kiradinte in the Careri Creek; then left the creek on the left, and passed over a succession of sand ridges. At 9·15 arrived at Lake Cudgeecudgeena, at about nine miles. It was quite a treat, abundance of good water, and any quantity of grass of various kinds, and plenty of clover. It bears 345°, is about six miles long, and fully half a mile wide, well timbered. On a bearing from this southern end of lake (now called Lake Buchanan, after Mr. Buchanan, of Anlaby, from whom the whole party experienced the utmost kindness), Lake Bulpaner, now all but dry (and