Page:Tracks of McKinlay and party across Australia.djvu/410

 "nourishing food has had upon our animals, winch, ten days ago, were fit for anything—always excepting this description of awful country. Wind from all points of the compass.'"

This river is the "Gilbert," I expect, and we shall stay a few days to recruit the horses. They want a spell badly.

16th. (Camp xix.) I hope old "Nano," camel, will be left behind, he is quite done for, and has never stirred since we camped yesterday. His feet are quite raw, as if they had been cut with a knife, from the rough country we have been going over. He is an old worn-out brute, and has carried many a ton of forage and rations for our troops in India, I'll engage, long before he went exploring; it is time he went to grass. It rained heavily last night, and Bell and I took the precaution to build a tent, where we slept quite snugly, while the others who camped out got soaking wet before they well knew it.

The scenery up and down this creek (the Gilbert) is grand, and the feed better than we have had for some time. [We refer our readers to the illustration, copied from a sketch made by one of the party on the spot.]

The old camel is to be killed! Old and worn out, with sores all over him, he will be a nice morsel, without the slightest bit of fat to be seen. What would Mr. McGuire say to this as part of the Coronation banquet? He is dead, and we