During the morning's march next day we shot an antelope and a kyang, and not wishing to delay the mules or to overload them, we left two men behind, Ghulam Russul and Shukr Ali, to cut up the meat and bring it in, whilst we continued in search of a suitable spot for a midday halt. This was a plan we frequently adopted, and there were always volunteers to stop behind, for by doing so they took good care to light a fire and feast on the tit-bits to their hearts' content, and well fortify themselves before carrying the load of meat to their fellow muleteers.
We had halted, and were expecting the arrival of these two men, when Mahomed Rahim, who had been sent to follow up the track, rejoined us, and as he approached we could see he was weeping bitterly. On asking the man what ailed him, he sobbed out that he had lost his way. He was a ludicrous sight, for he was a great, big, strong fellow, and we asked him, if he wept like this at finding us again after only being absent a day and a night, how would he weep had he not found us at all? We fed up the great baby with some unleavened bread, which he ate voraciously amidst his sobs. Some kyang came trotting up to camp with a look of wonderment at our being present there, and as we were about to move off some antelopes also came to inspect us.
The men carried quantities of cooked meat about their persons, wrapped up in their clothes, and as they tramped along they munched almost incessantly at the tough food tending to make them very thirsty, so that when we halted for the night they suffered considerably, for the water we dug out was too salt for drinking.
The following morning we came to a most dreary-looking region, ornamented only with a big salt lake, without any vegetation or kind of life, making us eager to get across such a solitude. At the east end of the lake we marched over rising ground up a nullah about a couple of miles before we came to some fairly good grass, where we called a halt, never dreaming that we were doomed to an unpleasant disappointment. On getting up some water from below the surface, we found it to be the worst we had tasted, quite impossible for man or beast to drink. Two of the men, however, did gulp some of it down, and suffered in consequence for their indulgence. Their thirst became far more acute than was that of the rest of us. We were afraid that should we find no water by the evening, it would go badly with all. Some of the animals were too thirsty even to eat the grass. We, therefore, made an earlier start than usual, sending on ahead a couple of men to search for water in some likely-looking ground that lay some distance on in front on our right flank.