food, they managed to creep away during the night, with the exception of
three or four of the bullocks, nor should we have collected them again so
soon as we did, or without infinite trouble, had it not been for our guide
and my black boy. We unavoidably lost a day, but left our position on the
23rd, for Underaliga, a station occupied by Doctor Harris, the gentleman I
have already had occasion to mention. We reached the banks of the creek
near the stock hut, about 4 p.m., having journeyed during the greater part
of the day through a poor country, partly of scrub and partly of open
forest-land, in neither of which was the soil or vegetation fresh or
abundant. At about three miles from Underaliga, the country entirely
changed its character, and its flatness was succeeded by a broken and
undulating surface. The soil upon the hills was coarse and sandy, from the
decomposition of the granite rock that constituted their base.
Nevertheless, the grass was abundant on the hills, though the roots or
tufts were far apart; and the hills were lightly studded with trees.

COURSE OF A HURRICANE.

In the course of the day we crossed the line of a hurricane that had just
swept with resistless force over the country, preserving a due north
course, and which we had heard from a distance, fortunately too great to
admit of its injuring us. It had opened a fearful gap in the forest
through which it had passed, of about a quarter of a mile in breadth.
Within that space, no tree had been able to withstand its fury, for it had
wrenched every bough from such as it had failed to prostrate, and they
stood naked in the midst of the surrounding wreck. I am inclined to think
that the rudeness of nature itself in these wild and uninhabited regions,
gives birth to these terrific phenomena. They have never occurred, so far
as I know, in the located districts. Our guide deserted us in the early
part of the day without assigning any reason for doing so. He went off