left by them on their line of march. I found the hills scrubby, barren,
and rocky, with much prickly grass growing upon their slopes. There were
no watercourses upon the west side of the range at all, nor could I by
tracing up some short rocky valleys coming from steep gorges in the face
of the hill find any water. The rock was principally of ironstone
formation. Upon ascending to the summit of the hill, I had an extensive
but unsatisfactory view, a vast level field of scrub stretching every
where around me, interspersed here and there with the beds of small dried
up lakes, but with no signs of water any where. At S. W. by S. I saw the
smoke of a native fire rising in the plains. Hurrying down from the
range, I followed the dray, and as soon as I overtook it, halted for the
night in the midst of a thick scrub of large tea-trees and minor shrubs.
There was a little grass scattered among the trees, on which, by giving
our horses two buckets of water each, they were able to feed tolerably
well. During the day we had travelled over a very heavy sandy country and
through dense brush, and our horses were much jaded. Occasionally we had
passed small dried up salt lakes and the beds of salt water channels; but
even these did not appear to have had any water in them for a long time.

Upon halting the party, I sent Mr. Scott to explore the range further
south than I had been, whilst I myself went to search among the salt
lakes to the southwest. We, however, both returned equally unsuccessful,
and I now found that I should be compelled to send the dray back for a
supply of water from Baxter's range. The country was so scrubby and
difficult to get a dray through that our progress was necessarily slow;
and in the level waste before us I had no hope of finding water for some
distance further. I thought, therefore, that if the dray could bring a
supply to last us for two days after leaving our present encampment, we
should then be enabled to make a fresh push through a considerable extent
of bad country, and might have a better chance of finding water as we