enough, it must lead him to the coast at last. Accordingly, he
marched after the sun till night-fall and then went cheerfully to
sleep, having supped upon some bread and pork, which he carried with
him. The next morning, at sunrise, he started off in the direction
of his guide, perfectly unconscious that he was now retracing his
steps, and journeying eastward. All day, however, he continued to
follow the sun, and when it set, wondered that he had not yet reached
the sea. At night, he finished his bread and pork, and the next
morning set off again on his long and tedious journey; still, at
night, there was no appearance of the ocean, and he fired off his gun
at a black cockatoo, which he killed with his only charge of shot.

Upon this bird he lived for the next two days, and for two more he
subsisted upon roots. He had now given up all hopes of discovering
the sea, and had lain down to die, when he was found by his master
and a party of natives, who had come in search of him.

It appeared that he was found upon almost the very spot on which he
had first lost himself.

When once a man begins to believe that he is lost in the wilderness,
he feels as helpless as one who is blind-folded at the game of
blindman's buff, and who has been twirled round so often, that he has
no idea whereabouts the door or the fire-place is situated. Those
who are used to the bush steer their course with almost unerring
precision by the sun, and a few known objects, but there are numbers
who never acquire this power. The natives appear to know by instinct
the direction of every spot they wish to reach; and many white men
seem to possess the same faculty.