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Mules are excellent for riding together with horses but they are too restless and wild to be ridden on reconnoitring rides.
the 27th Decbr We enjoyed a jolly Christmas with a young roasted goat and Tapioca pudding, the material to the latter we owed to the kindness of Mr Penny druggist in Sydney. yesterday two blackfellows came one of which Mr Bell we had seen beforehand: the other was strange to us. Both seemed to come from a fight with hostile natives, as one of them was severely wounded with a knife in the neck. They seemed to say that they had seen two of our hobbled mules. They mentioned Mr Kudsara and expressed themselves willing to go with us. This morning I started with Bele and Wommai, but we were scarcely 4 miles from the camp, when our native guide told us, that he had not seen the horses. We could not make anything out of him, and I consequently followed down the creek on my own accord. Below the old crossing place it is still scrubby and on several places rocky. We crossed it near its junction with the Condamine and returned on the left side. Swift killed a flyer and proved himself an excellent dog. I fear Turners names of creeks are nothing more than localities adjoining Bokkora creek from here down to the Condamine. It has been very cloudy yesterday and today. It is close and sultry and the thermometer was yesterday and today 21/2 ocl. [?] 90o F. The flies are an almost unbearable nuisance. - Sterculia [?] hetereophylla abounds in the forest, we past today a most magnificent specimen of it . A sweet gummy substance exudes from the bark of the apple tree. I found a species of Rubracea a small tree in blossom. Exquisite scent. Almost all my companions and myself suffer of Conjunctivitis though in different degrees. the state of the atmosphere and the flies must be the cause of it. It was unknown in my former expedition. The principal direction of the light winds, particularly during the night is from NEast.