lay a chain of reedy freshwater swamps, and native paths ran in from all
quarters to one main line of communication leading to the southward.

DANGERS OF DELAY.

In these swamps we first found the yunjid, or flag (a species of typha)
and the sow-thistle of the southern districts; one we came to was a thick
tea-tree swamp, extremely picturesque, and producing abundance of these
plants, some of which were collected by the men to eat in the evening. To
my surprise Mr. Walker here came up to me and asked if I did not think it
would be better to halt for a day or two at places of this kind to allow
the men to refresh themselves. The idea of men halting and wasting their
strength and energies in searching for native food whilst they had so
fearful a journey before them, and no supplies, appeared to me to be
preposterous in the extreme: to obtain a sufficiency of food, even for a
native, requires in Australia a great degree of skill and knowledge of
the productions of the country; but for a European, utterly unaccustomed
to this species of labour and totally unacquainted with the productions
of the land, to obtain enough to support life for any period, whilst at
the same time he has to search for water, is quite impossible. Even
Kaiber, from his ignorance of the roots, declared that he should starve
in this country. I saw therefore that did I adopt the proposed plan of
travelling only a few miles a day, and occasionally halting for a day or
two to refresh ourselves upon some thistles and periwinkles, I should
infallibly sacrifice the lives of the whole party; and under this
impression I declined to accede to the suggestion. Amongst indolent and
worn-out men however it subsequently became an extremely popular notion,
and, as future events clearly showed, a fatally erroneous one. I from the
first opposed it both by my words and example; and in this instance, as
soon as I conceived that the men were sufficiently rested, I moved on.