The beast the party had killed fully justified Mr.Browne's account of it, and its fine condition proved the excellent nature of the pastures on which it had fed.

We had not killed many of the sheep, as I was anxious to preserve them, since they had given us little or no trouble, so that I was led to hope that by ordinary care they would prove a most valuable and important stock.
We were here unable to approach the river, and therefore encamped near a creek, the banks of which were barren enough; however, as we had stopped for the benefit of the cattle it was of no consequence.

But although on this occasion they were absolutely up to their middles in the finest grass, the bullocks were not satisfied, but with a spirit of contradiction common to animals as well as men they separated into mobs and wandered away; the difficulty of recovering them being the greater, because of the numerous tracks of other cattle in every direction around us.

We recovered them, however, although too late to move that day, and it is somewhat remarkable to record, that this was the only occasion on which during this long journey we were delayed for so long a time by our animals wandering.

Had it not been for Tampawang, whose keen eye soon detected the fresher tracks, we might have been detained for several days.
As Mr.Browne had been on horseback the greater part of the day, I left him in the camp with Mr.Poole, both having been after the cattle, and in the afternoon walked out with Mr.Eyre, to try if we could get to the river, but failed, for the creeks were full of water, and our approach to it or to the nearer flats was entirely cut off.