In Choosing Bullocks For Such A Journey, One
Should Be Particularly Careful To Choose Young Powerful Beasts, About
Five Or Six Years Old, And Not Too Heavy.
All our old and heavy bullocks
proved to be bad travellers; only one had borne the journey until now,
and he was only preserved by great care and attention.
During summer, the
ground is so hot, and frequently so rotten, that even the feet of a dog
sink deep. This heat, should there be a want of water during a long
stage, and perhaps a run after game in addition, would inevitably kill a
soft dog. It is, therefore, of the greatest importance to have a good
traveller, with hard feet: a cross of the kangaroo dog with the
bloodhound would be, perhaps, the best. He should be light, and satisfied
with little food in case of scarcity; although the dried tripe of our
bullocks gave ample and good food to one dog. It is necessary to carry
water for them; and to a little calabash, which we obtained from the
natives of the Isaacs, we have been frequently indebted for the life of
Spring.
Sept. 8. - We travelled about ten miles north-west by west, to latitude 16
degrees (Unclear:)81 minutes. The first and last parts of the stage were
scrubby, or covered with a dense underwood of several species of Acacia,
Grevillea chrysodendrum and a species of Pultenaea with leafless
compressed stem. The intervening part of our journey was through a
stringy-bark forest, with sandy, and frequently rotten soil, on sandstone
ridges or undulations.
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