is exemplified by the fact that in 1870, John Forrest found the skull
of a horse in one of Eyre's camps on the cliffs of the south coast
thirty years after it was left there by Eyre. Forrest carried the
skull to Adelaide. I argue, therefore, that if Leichhardt's animals
and equipment had not been buried by a flood, some remains must have
been since found, for it is impossible, if such things were above
ground that they could escape the lynx-like glances of Australian
aboriginals, whose wonderful visual powers are unsurpassed among
mankind. Everybody and everything must have been swallowed in a
cataclysm and buried deep and sure in the mud and slime of a flood.

The New South Wales Government made praiseworthy efforts to rescue the
missing traveller. About a year after Leichhardt visited Port
Essington, the Government abandoned the settlement, and the prevailing
opinion in the colony of New South Wales at that time was, that
Leichhardt had not been able to reach Eyre's Creek, but had been
forced up north, from his intended route, the inland-sea theory still
prevailing, and that he had probably returned to the old settlement
for relief. Therefore, when he had been absent two years, the
Government despatched a schooner to the abandoned place. The master of
the vessel saw several of the half-civilised natives, who well
remembered Leichhardt's arrival there, but he had not returned. The
natives promised the master to take the greatest care of him should he
again appear, but it is needless to say he was seen no more. The
Government were very solicitous about him, and when he had been absent
four years, Mr. Hovendon Heley was sent away with an outfit of
pack-horses and six or seven men, to endeavour to trace him. This
expedition seems to have wandered about for several months, and
discovered, as Mr. Heley states, two marked trees branded exactly
alike, namely L over XVA, and each spot where these existed is