horses; but, from the great evaporation, it did not seem likely to last
longer than three or four days: the hardness of the sandstone precluded
our sinking the wells more than one and a half feet. The extreme aridity
of the country--the absence of water in consequence of the sandy nature
of the soil, which renders it impossible that watercourses should
exist--the dense and almost impassable nature of the thickets of acacia
and melaleuca of small growth, and the heat of the climate--all tend to
prove the fallacy of attempting to explore this part of the colony,
excepting during the wettest of the winter months. Under the existing
circumstances, I considered it my duty not to lead the party into a
position from which it would most probably be impracticable to extricate
ourselves without at least losing some of our horses; and even
difficulties of a more serious nature might arise, which would prevent
the more complete examination of the imperfectly known country to the
southward of our present position, more especially as a successful
advance to the northward seemed impossible.

5th October.

Left the encampment at 8.10 a.m.; steered north 135 degrees east magnetic
over sandy country, covered with coarse scrub; at noon passed a narrow
strip of wooded grassy land, the soil being limestone and red loam. The
country again became scrubby, and, descending an open valley, came on a
small watercourse at 1.5 p.m., trending south; followed it
south-south-west. At 2.15 passed our bivouac of the 29th September, and
turning south-west along the stream-bed, at 4.0 came on the right bank of
the Murchison River, running through wide grassy flats, the stream
forming large pools, some of them more than a mile in length; but, with
the exception of the flats on each side of the bank, the country is poor
and scrubby, destitute of trees, and the hills high and rocky, consisting