The camel, though we gave it some water, could not move from the shade of the bush. We tried to drive it, and to drag it, but to no purpose, therefore we shot it. My son and White returned to the well for more water, and to bring out camels to carry the meat. Lewis remained with me to cut up the camel and prepare it for carriage. We sent the head and tail, with the liver and half the heart and kidneys, to make soup for Charley, and a little picking for the rest. I hope the fact of the camel's head not having been turned toward Mecca, or its throat cut by a "True Believer," may not prejudice the camel men against the use of what we send.

Cutting up the camel and eating the "tit-bits" was the work of the day. We have now only five camels, and one of them so weak it cannot carry a saddle. Could we but reach the Oakover, we might manage some way or other; but the camels must take us there, or we shall never see it. I am sanguine now that we shall get there with at least four camels; two days ago I expected never to be able to leave the spot I was lying on.

December 25.-We cannot but draw a mental picture of our friends in Adelaide sitting down to their Christmasdinner, while we lie sweltering on the ground starving, and should be thankful to have the pickings out of any pig's trough. This is no exaggeration, but literal truth. We cut out three bee-holes to-day, but found no honey in any of them. No sign of Lewis. If he is not here by the close of Sunday next, I shall be obliged to suppose he has gone to Roebourne, in which case there can be no hope of his return for the next three weeks, and, except God grant us His help, we cannot live so long on our present supply.

Our lives have been preserved through many and great dangers, so my trust is in God's mercy toward us; it never fails, though it does not take always the course we look for.

We fancied we should find many opossums in the gumtrees, but have not seen one. We have fish close to us, but though we deprive ourselves of the entrails of a bird as bait, they will not take it. We eat everything clean through

from head to tail. Prejudiced cooks may not accept my advice, but I am quite satisfied all birds ought to be cooked whole, extracting what you please afterward. We omitted the latter operation, but this is a matter depending on cir

cumstances.

Our last Christmas at Alice Springs was miserable enough, as we then thought, but the present beats it out and out.

December 26.-Desperately hot, but still dry. Obtained a shag and two white cockatoos. Richard's leg is improving, yet he is exceedingly week; not very much better than I am.

December 27.-Passed in our ordinary heated idleness.

December 28.-Threatening rain, but none fell. How heavily time hangs on our hands! We drink, smoke, and sleep as much as we can, then talk about what we should like to eat.

December 29.-Sahleh's finger is very bad indeed from the scorpion sting. The state of our blood allows no wound to heal of itself, and 1 have no medicine suitable to his case. If it continues to get worse without any prospect of surgical aid, some one (not I) shall have to chop his finger off with a tomahawk or he will lose his arm and his life.

Lewis not having returned, I am compelled to think either that there is no station on the De Grey, or that he has missed it and gone on to Roebourne, in which case he cannot be back for a fortnight. Our position stands thus: We have abundance of water, a little tobacco, and a few bits of dried camel. Occasionally an iguana or a cockatoo enlivens our fare, and lastly, I hope the late rain will bring up some thistles or pig-weed that we can eat.

Our difficulties are to make our meat last, though, so far from doing us good, we are all afflicted with scurvy, diarrhoea, and affection of the kidneys from the use of it. We cannot catch the fish, we cannot find opossums or snakes, the birds won't sit down by us, and we can't get up to go to them. We thought we should have no difficulty in feeding ourselves on the river, but it turns out that from one

cause or another we can get very little, and we are daily dropping down a peg or two lower.

I am, however, satisfied that sending down to look for the station was our best plan; if it fail, the two who have been sent may save their lives, and we have a chance of saving ours if we can only hold out, whereas had we all remained, we should have eaten the two camels that are gone, and scarcely have progressed twenty miles; after that our case would have been hopeless. I cannot tell how it may turn out, but I do not regret the measure. We must wait patiently, I am sure Lewis will do all that can be done. His endurance, perseverance, and judgment are beyond all praise, and his various services have been most valuable. My great fear is that the summer rains may set in and stop his return, but we must hope for the best.

A few hours after making the above entry in my journal Lewis returned with an ample supply for all our wants and with six horses to carry us down.

The

I need not say how thankful we were, or how quickly we set to work at the food. camels with the heavier We all feel most grate

supplies are to come up to-morrow. ful to Messrs. Grant, Harper, and Anderson for their promptitude and liberality.

My companions are all eating to the extent of their powers; for myself, I was too weak to stand the sudden change of food, and am ill in consequence.

I

I have now only to close my journal. We have been more than a year on the journey. All distances forward and backward included, our land traveling, as nearly as I can estimate it, has amounted to 4000 miles. We have all got through our trials better than could have been expected. believe my son and myself are the only two European sufferers. I have lost the sight of one eye, and my son is much shaken in health. Sahleh, the Afghan, left his finger in Roebourne. Beyond this I know of no harm that has been done. We started with seventeen camels and ended with two.

OCEANIA

Volcanic New Zealand

By JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE

UR immediate business was to visit the famous Terraces,

stroyed by an earthquake a few years after Froude's visit in 1885.] The Terraces were twenty-four miles off. We were to drive first through the mountains to a native village which had once been a famous missionary station, called Wairoa. There we were to sleep at an establishment affiliated to the Lake Hotel, and the next day a native boat would take us across Tarawara Lake, a piece of water as large as Rotorua, at the extremity of which the miracle of nature was to be found.

We had brought a letter of introduction from Sir George Grey to the chief of Wairoa-a very great chief, we learned afterward, who declined allegiance to the king. It was to his tribe that the Terraces belonged, and to them we were to be indebted for boat and crew and permission to see the place. The sum exacted varied with the number of the party. There were three of us, and we should have £4 to pay. The tariff is fixed, to limit extortion; the money goes to the villagers, who make a night of it and get drunk after each expedition.

A native guide, a lady, would attend us and show off the wonders. There was a choice of two, whose portraits we had studied in the Auckland photograph shops. Both were middle-aged. Sophia was small and pretty, she had

bright black eyes, with a soft expression, and spoke excellent English. Kate was famous for having once dived after and saved a tourist who had fallen into the water, and had received the Humane Society's medal. We delayed our selection till we had seen these famous rivals.

At night the scene is said to be more beautiful than in the day, the fireflies being so many and so brilliant that the glades seem as if lighted up for a festival of the fairies. It is altogether a preternatural kind of place; on emerging from beneath the trees we found ourselves on the edge of a circular lake or basin of beautifully transparent sapphirecolored water, a mile in diameter, with no stream running into it or out of it, and closed completely round with woods, cliffs, and rocky slopes. No boat or canoe floats on its mysterious surface. It is said to contain no living thing save a dragon, which has been seen on sunny days to crawl upon a bank to warm himself. I was reminded instantly of the mountain lake in the "Arabian Nights" where the fisherman drew his net at the bidding of the genius. Here, if anywhere in the world, was the identical spot where the five fish were taken out-red, blue, yellow, purple, and greenthat terrified the king's cook by talking in the frying-pan. The dragon might really be there for anything that I could tell; anything might be there, so weird, so enchanted, was the whole scene.

Following the beach for a quarter of a mile, and listening to the voices of the waves which rippled on the shingle, we turned around a shoulder of rock, and saw, a hundred feet below us, and divided from the blue lake by a ridge over which a strong hand might throw a stone, a second lake of a dingy green color-not enchanted, this one, but merely uncanny looking. I suppose below both these are mineral springs which account for the tint. Out of the green lake a river did run-a strong, rapid stream, falling in cataracts down a broken ravine, and overhung by dense clumps of trees with large glossy leaves. The road followed the water into a valley, which opened out at the lower end. There stood Vairoa and its inhabitants.