off on horseback immediately after breakfast, accompanied by Mr. Scott.

We traced up its stony and rugged bed for about seven miles among the
hills, to a point where the scenery was peculiarly grand and sublime. The
cliffs rose perpendicularly from the channel of the watercourse to a
height of from six to eight hundred feet, towering above us in awful and
imposing prominencies. At their base was a large pool of clear though
brackish water; and a little beyond a clump of rushes, indicating the
existence of a spring. In the centre of these rushes the natives had dug
a small well, but the water was no better than that in the larger pool.

The natives generally resort to such places as these when the rain water
is dried up in the plains or among the hills immediately skirting them.
Far among the fastnesses of the interior ranges, these children of the
wilds find resources which always sustain them when their ordinary
supplies are cut off; but they are not of corresponding advantage to the
explorer, because they are difficult of access, not easily found, and
seldom contain any food for his horses, so that he can barely call at
them and pass on. Such was the wretched and impracticable character of
the country in which we were now placed.

Having tied up our horses, Mr. Scott and I ascended to the top of the
high cliff by winding along the ridges at the back of it. From its summit
we had an extensive view, and I was enabled to take several angles. One
of the high peaks in the Mount Deception range bearing S. 35 degrees W.
about five miles off I named Mount Scott. To the east were seen high
ranges, to which I had sent my overseer. Descending the hill we examined
the course of the watercourse a few miles further, and ascertaining that
there was no more water in it, retraced our steps towards the depot,
somewhat fatigued with clambering up rocky ranges under the oppressive