obtain relief to their parched throats by chewing the laces and fragments of the tops of their ankle boots; but now the “last sad and revolting resource of thirst was upon them—they were driven to drink their own ——!”[344] ----- Footnote 344: ‘Grey’s Travels,’ ii. p. 54-72. ----- Reduced to the last degree of weakness and want, Captain Grey, in this desperate crisis, resolved to proceed southward, and never to halt until he dropped or reached water; and if any of the party fell behind, not to wait for them, but to go on until he slaked his own thirst, and then to return with assistance to them. Upon all he called to exert their utmost energies and make a last struggle for their lives. Every superfluous article was now thrown away, and the very valuable sextant, carried in turns by corporals Coles and Auger, was also abandoned. In sad procession the sufferers reeled on with wild and haggard looks; and though reason with some had begun to hold but a very slight influence, discipline was rigidly maintained, and not a complaint escaped them. At length, after suffering intense thirst for three days and two nights, performing severe marches under a scorching sun, the delighted travellers, finding a small hole of moist mud, each as he came up cast his wearied and aching limbs beside the hole, and, thanking God, greedily swallowed the liquid.[345] ----- Footnote 345: ‘Grey’s Travels,’ ii. p. 77-81. ----- Almost in a state of stupefaction the men lay down by the pool, watching with straining eye-balls until they again saw a little mud in it, which they eagerly licked up. Pigeons and cockatoos in numbers came to drink of the spring, but the gaunt wayfarers forestalling them had consumed the supply. Above, hovered birds in tempting flocks while the travellers by the “lone pool” were starving. Not an arm was strong enough to bring one down. The gun was partially raised, but the tremor of the effort rendered the attempt altogether hopeless. Each now turned to his own little store, and cooking a spoonful of flour, mixed with the black liquid, gratefully ate it. All sense of smell and taste had gone, and a repast of mud was as palatable as a custard. Next day, April the 18th, quitting the memorable pool, they traversed a very hilly and densely-wooded country, and finding excellent water, made, notwithstanding their extreme feebleness, an incredibly long march. At night they lay down exposed to heavy rain, and, as a piece of torn and shredded blanket between two was their only covering, their situation was one of extreme wretchedness and suffering.[346] During these wanderings, Auger found intervals in which his spirits were sufficiently buoyant to encourage him to unpack his needles and thread, and to do his best—being only an improvised tailor—to mend the gaping rents and fretted fractures in the Captain’s tattered costume.[347] ----- Footnote 346: Ibid., ii. p. 81-87. Footnote 347: