A very good route brought us across this slight descent and stream; and from this point no further impediment of any consequence appeared to lie in our way.

The direction in which I now wished to travel presented a series of rocky, sandy plains, thinly wooded, and affording a scanty sufficiency of food for the ponies.
EXHAUSTION FROM FATIGUE.

COLD RAINS.
During the time I was searching for this route the rain had fallen in torrents, and the quantity of ground I had walked over was so considerable that I was exhausted; riding was quite impossible in these excursions as, in many places where the ground was covered with loose rocks overgrown with a vegetation which concealed treacherous cavities, it was necessary to pass across it two or three times before I could determine whether a horse could move over it or not.

Today I found myself completely knocked up, and felt certain that I could not for many days longer bear up against such continued fatigues.

On my return to the camp I found all prepared for a start tomorrow; but many of the horses were so ill as to be incapable of carrying more than half a load.
February 10.
We moved off at daybreak and, having reached the ravine, set to work to form a pathway down the descent, and up the ascent on the other side, under the additional disadvantage of heavy rain.