Two buckets for each animal were
allowed. At 10, A.M., when my turn came, Captain Moore had succeeded,
by great exertions, in opening another well, and the one already opened
began to flow more freely, in consequence of which, we could afford to
give each animal as much as it could drink. The poor brutes, none of
which had tasted water in forty-eight hours, and some not for the last
sixty, clustered round the well and scrambled for precedence. At 12
o'clock I had watered all my animals, thirty-seven in number, and
turned over the well to Captain Moore. The animals still had an aching
void to fill, and all night was heard the munching of sticks, and their
piteous cries for more congenial food.
"_November 27 and 28_.--To-day we started a few minutes after sunrise.
Our course was a winding one, to avoid the sand-drifts. The Mexicans
had informed us that the waters of the salt lake, some thirty or forty
miles distant, were too salt to use, but other information led us to
think the intelligence was wrong. We accordingly tried to reach it;
about 3, P.M., we disengaged ourselves from the sand, and went due
(magnetic) west, over an immense level of clay detritus, hard and
smooth as a bowling-green.
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