Smith's feet had latterly become so sore that he had been compelled to
tie pieces of kangaroo skin over them, and thus equipped to walk without
his half-boots; and, on coming in to our bivouac, I had the mortification
to hear that, having been put carelessly on the horses, one of these
boots had fallen down; I saw therefore that it would be necessary to let
him and a native go back the next day upon the two horses we had with us
for the purpose of finding it. To Europeans it would seem rather a
visionary task to travel twelve or fourteen miles in a trackless forest
in the hope of recovering a boot, but the natives' eyes are so keen that
their finding it amounted to a matter of certainty.

LOVELY BIVOUACK.

Our bivouac this night had a beauty about it which would have made anyone
possessed with the least enthusiasm fall in love with a bush life. We
were sitting on a gently-rising ground which sloped away gradually to a
picturesque lake surrounded by wooded hills, whilst the moon shone so
brightly on the lake that the distance was perfectly clear, and we could
distinctly see the large flocks of wildfowl as they passed over our heads
and then splashed into the water, darkening and agitating its silvery
surface; in front of us blazed a cheerful fire, round which were the dark
forms of the natives, busily engaged in roasting ducks for us; the
foreground was covered with graceful grass trees and, at the moment we
commenced supper, I made the natives set fire to the dried tops of two of
these, and by the light of these splendid chandeliers, which threw a red
glare over the whole forest in our vicinity, we ate our evening meal;
then, closing round the fire, rolled ourselves up in our blankets and
laid down to sleep.

December 3.