During the short interval I had been out, I had seen rivers cease to flow before me, and sheets of water disappear; and had it not been for a merciful Providence, should, ere reaching the Darling, have been overwhelmed by misfortune.
I am giving no false picture of the reality.

So long had the drought continued, that the vegetable kingdom was almost annihilated, and minor vegetation had disappeared.

In the creeks, weeds had grown and withered, and grown again; and young saplings were now rising in their beds, nourished by the moisture that still remained; but the largest forest trees were drooping, and many were dead.

The emus, with outstretched necks, gasping for breath, searched the channels of the rivers for water, in vain; and the native dog, so thin that it could hardly walk, seemed to implore some merciful hand to despatch it.

How the natives subsisted it was difficult to say, but there was no doubt of the scarcity of food among them.
We arrived in camp at a late hour, and having nothing to detain us longer, prepared for our retreat in the morning.