22ND.
The ants were so troublesome last night, I had to shift my bed several
times. Gibson was not at all affected by them, and slept well. We were
in our saddles immediately after daylight. I was in hopes that a few
miles might bring about a change of country, and so it did, but not an
advantageous one to us. At ten miles from camp the horizon became
flatter, the sandhills fell off, and the undulations became covered
with brown gravel, at first very fine. At fifty-five miles it became
coarser, and at sixty miles it was evident the country was becoming
firmer, if not actually stony. Here we turned the horses out, having
come twenty miles. I found one of our large waterbags leaked more than
I expected, and our supply of water was diminishing with distance.
Here Gibson preferred to keep the big cob to ride, against my advice,
instead of Badger, so, after giving Badger and Darkie a few pints of
water each, Gibson drove them back on the tracks about a mile and let
them go, to take their own time and find their own way back to the
Circus. They both looked terribly hollow and fatigued, and went away
very slowly. Sixty miles through such a country as this tells
fearfully upon a horse. The poor brutes were very unwilling to leave
us, as they knew we had some water, and they also knew what a fearful
region they had before them to reach the Circus again.
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