march that I slept soundly— through the
valley of the Hunter. If this was winter
weather, I could have gladly exchanged
some of our English spring days for it. And
at night, as we halted, and the servants
unpacked the provisions and lighted our
campfire, I sat down in wonderment at the amount
of exertion I could go through. I sat looking
at the blazing, crackling wood, and striving
to recollect my thoughts. I could not help
contrasting my present position with that of
so few months ago— the coughing, blood-
spitting, cod-liver oil drinking— being now
seated in the free, genial, open night air, by
Harrington's directions, mixing up what he
termed a " leather jacket," a sort of cake of
flour and water, to be presently baked upon
the embers.

"Come, confess this is better than acting
invalid, is it not ? " observed that rascal,
interrupting my reverie. I readily assented.
"Then," added he, "you ought to heartily
thank me for kicking that medicine-chest
of yours overboard the steamer."

The next day we were startled early from
our sleep by the chattering of our attendants.
We had, upon the previous evening,
turned the horses loose to graze, as was our
nightly custom; they were always easily
caught when wanted. Whether seduced
by the richness of the pasture or alarmed by
some object they had met with, I know not.
The Englishman, in his native tongue, and the
Australian in some mixed gibberish, informed
us they were no where to be found. Here
were our cooking-utensils, our warmer
clothing, our stores of provisions lying
upon the ground as we had unpacked
or unloaded them, without the possibility
of our proceeding on our way. The two
servants after breakfast and a short consultation,
started in opposite directions in search
of marks whereby to trace the horses. I
offered my services also, but was answered
by Harrington:

"No; you will lose your way as sure as a
gun, and then we shall have to look for you;
better keep with me."

I could not combat the probability, and
could only regret my want of knowledge of
the country, and Harrington and I set off
together in search of footprints. Several
times we started and returned to the place
whence the horses had been left at night:
the marks crossed each other in so many
directions. We must have slept soundly
indeed, not to have heard the games the
horses must have carried on in the
moonlight. At length Harrington fixed upon what
he deemed the right track, and we were
about to start afresh when we were joined by
the servants, returned from their unsuccessful
search for footmarks. We all continued on
together for about a mile when the horses'
paths evidently diverged, and parting
company. Harrington and I were once move
alone. It was wondrous to me how my
companion could trace the animals; at times
the footprints were so lightly pressed upon
the turf, that I should never have perceived
them; but nothing escaped him. At the
close of the day I felt very knocked up, but
my friend appeared as fresh as ever. He
turned to me and said:

"It is of no use going any further, now;
we had better return."

' Why so ? " I asked. " Had we not better
sleep here; could we not signal to the others
to join us, they are probably not far off. You
have your gun with you."

"How are we to get any supper? " asked
he.

"Ah, to be sure," I answered, " I forgot
that. But it seems a pity to have come so far
for nothing."

"We could not, even without that objection,
go much further as we are," answered
Harrington. " We are coming shortly to a
cold region, and should be frozen without
our winter clothing."

I stared, but was silent, for the day was
as warm as summer, and we retraced our
steps slowly towards the camp. There we
found the other men already comfortably
seated by the fire, having had the precaution
to set a kettle of water on to boil, awaiting
our arrival. We discovered that our camp
had had visitors during our absence. Some
wild dogs of the plain had helped themselves
rather too freely for our comfort. All the
dried meat had been devoured, the animals
having torn the bags which contained it to
pieces: most of the flour was scattered about
the ground, and fouled, so that we had
scarcely sufficient to make leather jackets for
our supper. We collected the tea which the
brutes had strewn upon the grass as well as
we could; but I fear it was more adulterated
with sticks and dead herbage than even a
grocer would have presumed to sell it. We
felt very savage; but forgot this new
misfortune and the loss of the horses before long
in sleep. In the morning, we packed,
portably, the winter clothing which we had
brought with us, and which the quacones had
not attempted to devour, and again walked
on the track of the horses, hungry from the
morning air. We each carried a gun, and
the servants followed with the cooking
utensils, &c. Harrington kept constantly
looking for some game; but without success.
I felt desperately hungry, and more so every
hour, and I have no doubt so did my
companions also, but we none of us said so.
Towards dusk, we had advanced almost as
far as the spot where Harrington and I had
turned on the previous night. The trees
were thick above our heads. Suddenly the
Australian, whose eyes seemed always on the
alert, advanced, and touching Harrington
upon the arm, pointed to a projecting bough
of a tree. The next moment the man, active
as a monkey, sprang up the stem, and was
about to clamber along the branches, when