Getting nothing better than one miserable shag by our
revolvers, we faced damper and " Lot's wife '' about
sundown, returning to camp through a dense Leichardt
pine forest, where we found myriads of bat-hke creatures,
inches long, perhaps a foot, hanging head downwards
from almost every branch of every tree. " Flying foxes,"
Dan called them, and Sambo helped himself to a few,
finding " Lot's wife " unsatisfying ; but the white folk
" drew the line at varmints.''

" Had bandicoot once for me Christmas dinner," Dan
informed us, making extra tea " on account of ' Lot's wife '
taking a bit of washing down." Then, supper over, the
problem of watering the horses had to be solved. The
margins of the lagoons were too boggy for safety, and
as the horses, fearing alligators apparently, refused the
river, we had a great business persuading them to drink
out of the camp mixing dish.
The sun was down before we began ; and long before
we were through with the tussle, pecuhar shrilling cries
caught our attention, and, turning to face down stream,
we saw a dense cloud approaching — skimming along and
above the river : a shriUing, moving cioud, keeping all
the while to the river, but reaching right across it, and
away beyond the tree tops.
