Page:Tracks of McKinlay and party across Australia.djvu/385

 nothing—a black desert. Why the natives set it on fire we don't know. It was very warm travelling through this conflagration. The hawks soaring above in hundreds, ready to pounce down on the poor frightened lizards, mice, or any other little animal that escaped from this fearful monster fire. Plenty of water on our road to-day, keeping the Leichhardt on our right all the way, the fine timber on its banks marking well its course.

18th. (Camp lix.) Everything at camp all right. We were all off together this morning. We shall soon strike the Gulf; at any rate we cannot be far off from the sea, as the tide rises some four or five feet here, and perhaps more. We had rather nasty travelling over plains, not a hill to be seen; look where you will, the grass nearly all burnt off the ground; in places the stumps were rather trying to the camels, they being as sharp as spikes. Passed several lagoons on our way, and any number of cockatoos in the trees on the banks, and very pretty they look. There is a great sameness in the country, down this river at least, as far as we have come (over 100 miles). We passed a fine creek, with plenty of water, with game, ducks, etc. A few miles further on we struck a pretty mangrove creek, and further on crossed lots of little rivulets of salt water, running inland with the tide, which was just making, and we saw it coming up quite fast. There seems to