before I returned. In that direction, however, no curling smoke denoted
the presence of the savage; all was lonely and still; and yet even in
these deserted plains, equally wanting in the redundance of animal, as in
the luxuriance of vegetable life, I could discover the rudiments of
future prosperity, and ample justification of the name which I had
bestowed upon them. I gazed around, despite my personal disappointment,
with feelings of hopeful gratitude to Him who had spread out so fair a
dwelling place for his creatures; and could not refrain from breathing a
prayer that ere long the now level horizon would be broken by a
succession of tapering spires rising from the many christian hamlets that
must ultimately stud this country, and pointing through the calm depths
of the intensely blue and gloriously bright skies of Tropical Australia,
to a still calmer and brighter and more glorious region beyond, to which
all our sublimest aspirations tend, and where all our holiest desires may
be satisfied.

The recent formation of this part of the country was very striking. We
met no rocks during our walk; a porphyritic pebble or two being the only
stones noticed; they were flattened, evidently showing that the water by
which they were carried had a slow motion, which supports the view I have
put forward in an early page of this volume, with reference to the
gradual northerly discharge of the accumulated waters of Central
Australia.

EXPLORATION OF THE INTERIOR.

My position was in latitude 17 degrees 58 1/2 minutes South longitude 7
degrees 12 1/2 East of Port Essington, or 139 degrees 25 minutes East of
Greenwich; and within four hundred miles from the centre of the
continent. What an admirable point of departure for exploring the