I still hurried along the native path, and was so wrapped up in the thoughts of our present position that I passed, without seeing it, a beautiful spring that rose to within a few inches of the surface.

Near this the natives had built a small hut, covered with boughs, concealed in which they might kill the birds and animals which came to drink at this lone water; the keen eye of Coles in a moment detected the little pool, and our thirst was soon assuaged.
For a few minutes we lay on the bank of this clear spring, resting our wearied limbs and admiring the scenery around us.

There is a something in the wild luxuriance of a totally new and uncultivated country which words cannot convey to the inhabitant of an old and civilized land, the rich and graceful forms of the trees, the massy moss-grown trunks which cumber the soil, the tree half uptorn by some furious gale and still remaining in the falling posture in which the winds have left it, the drooping disorder of dead and dying branches, the mingling of rich grasses and useless weeds, all declare that here man knows not the luxuries the soil can yield him: it was over such a scene, rendered still more lovely by the falling shadows of night, that our eyes now wandered.
BENIGHTED IN RETURNING TO THE PARTY.
I roused the men again and we commenced our return to the party, loaded with a supply of water.

It was now dark and we soon wandered from the path.

Kaiber took a star for his guide and led us straight across the country; but our route lay through a warran ground, full of holes, and in the darkness of the night we every now and then had a tremendous tumble, so that at the end of about four miles I thought that it would be imprudent to proceed farther, as we every moment were in danger of breaking a limb or seriously injuring ourselves.