Page:Tracks of McKinlay and party across Australia.djvu/414

 some more of him for breakfast; meat rather tasteless, but the heart, roasted for dinner, was as good as a bullock's. Mr. McKinlay says the party, after starving two or three meals, have taken quietly to him now, and rather like—like it!—yes, in preference to starvation.

18th. Waterloo-day. Still in camp. We played too, and drank water, keeping up the day with a vengeance. Heavy dew last night. First part of day repairing saddles. Mr. McKinlay and Middleton sorting out the most useful things to take, the rest will be buried under an old dead tree, forty yards up the bank. The camel won't be good for much; what with the dew and no sun, it can't dry.

19th. Missed one of the horses this morning, and on looking for him found him quite dead, perhaps bitten by a snake. He was one of our best pack-horses, and always in good condition the whole way. Mr. McKinlay was very much put out at this, but it cannot be helped. Two of our best dead, two left behind; leaving only twenty-two, and two camels.

Started up a tributary, and then struck into the main creek about ten miles; bad work for the animals, but they did it very well. We buried this morning all sorts of rubbish at the foot of an old dead tree, and medicine, too, and a tin box, in which most of the things were placed, and then it was consigned to its resting-place, till some hardy