fatigues and privations of the forced labours I was obliged to impose
upon them.

Having ascertained these particulars, and at so much hazard, relative to
Lake Torrens, for so great a part of its course, what conclusion could I
arrive at with regard to the character of its other half to the
north-east, and east of Flinders ranges, as seen from Mount Hopeless, and
Mount Serle points, nearly ninety miles apart! The appearances from the
ranges were similar; the trend of all the watercourses was to the same
basin, and undoubtedly that basin, if traced far enough, must be of
nearly the same level on the eastern, as on the western side of the
ranges. I had completely ascertained that Flinders range had terminated
to the eastward, the north-east, and the north; that there were no hills
or elevations connected with it beyond, in any of these directions, and
that the horizon every where was one low uninterrupted level.

With such data, and under such circumstances, what other opinion could I
possibly arrive at, than that the bed of Lake Torrens was nearly similar
in its character, and equally impracticable in its eastern, as its
western arm; and that, considering the difficulties I had encountered,
and the hazards I had subjected myself to, in ascertaining these points
so minutely on the western side, I could not be justified in renewing
those risks to the eastward, where the nature and extent of the
impediments were so self-evidently the same, and where there was not the
slightest hope of any useful result being attained by it.

I was now more than a hundred miles away from my party; and having sent
them orders to move back towards Mount Arden, I had no time to lose in
following them. With bitter feelings of disappointment I turned from the
dreary and cheerless scene around me, and pushing the horses on as well