more rain the country would have been impracticable for horses,--if less
we could not have procured water to have enabled us to make such a push
as we had done.

The lake where it was visible, appeared, as it had ever done, to be from
twenty-five to thirty miles across, and its distance from Mount Hopeless
was nearly the same. The hills to the S. and S. W. of us, seemed to
terminate on the eastern slopes, as abruptly as on the western; and from
the point where we stood, we could distinctly trace by the gum-trees, the
direction of watercourses emanating from among them, taking northerly,
north-easterly, easterly and south-easterly courses, according to the
point of the range they came from. This had been the case during the
whole of our route under Flinder's range. We had at first found the
watercourses going to the south of west, then west, north-west, north,
and now north-east, east and south-east. I had, at the same time,
observed all around this mountain mass, the appearance of the bed of a
large lake, following the general course of the ranges on every side, and
receiving, apparently, the whole drainage from them.

On its western, and north-western shores, I had ascertained by actual
examination, that its basin was a very low level, clearly defined, and
effectually inclosed by an elevated continuous sandy ridge, like the
outer boundary of a sea-shore, its area being of immense extent, and its
bed of so soft and yielding a nature, as to make it quite impossible to
cross it. All these points I had decided positively, and finally, as far
as regards that part of Lake Torrens, from near the head of Spencer's
Gulf, to the most north-westerly part of it, which I visited on the 14th
of August, embracing a course of fully 200 miles in its outline. I had
done this, too, under circumstances of great difficulty, toil, and
anxiety, and not without the constant risk of losing my horses, from the