The camp was then moved to these water-holes, about nine miles off, in a due west course.

Fine water-holes were passed at a short half-mile from our camp; and, after crossing the northern anabranch of the river, we again found water.
The detection of isolated water-holes in a wooded country, where there is nothing visible to indicate its presence, is quite a matter of chance.

We have often unconsciously passed well-filled water-holes, at less than a hundred yards distant, whilst we were suffering severely from thirst.

Our horses and bullocks never showed that instinctive faculty of detecting water, so often mentioned by other travellers; and I remember instances, in which the bullocks have remained the whole night, not fifty yards from water-holes, without finding them; and, indeed, whenever we came to small water-holes, we had to drive the cattle down to them, or they would have strayed off to find water elsewhere.

On several occasions I followed their tracks, and observed they were influenced entirely by their sight when in search of it; at times attracted by a distant patch of deeper verdure, at others following down a hollow or a watercourse, but I do not recollect a single instance where they found water for themselves.