ABSTRACT
This stormy month even here has been ushered in by blowing weather. It has however changed for the better and has cooled down from the burning heats of the last fortnight. The wind however has flown round to ESE and I fear if it continues in that quarter that we may anticipate more heat. Every bird has now forsaken these lonely and inhospitable regions. We are alone in the wilderness not a native or a wild dog daring to approach our Camp. All the feathered tribe [,] the Crested Parrot, 1 the Scolloped Paro-quets[,] 2 the Pidgeons, and the various birds of Prey, all have taken their flight to the Northwest, whilst on the other hand Pelicans [,] Storks and Wildfowl come in from that quarter in small flights, thus indicating that somewhere at no great distance from us there is water, and that in the same direction there is a better country to which the land birds migrate. Of the thousands of the latter that once crowded the trees on the creek not one is to be seen. The conclusion[,] if I had not the evidence of my own senses in the conviction that when I was last out I was near some decided change, is obvious but we must wait patiently for wet. I am only thankful that we have maintained our ground as we have done. We are on the only permanent water of this extensive desert and are as I said before locked up as fast as if we were bound by the eternal snows of the Pole. I cannot but think that Providence intends us to succeed in this great under[ta]king. His Hand has marked out our progress so evidently, that I cannot but hope He will continue to [give] us his guidance and support. The termination of the Western Creek will place us in a commanding position, and so soon as rain falls in sufficient quantity we shall move over to it and commence active operations.
