neither tree nor shrub for firewood and we were constantly obliged to go
half a mile up a steep hill before we could obtain a few stunted bushes to
cook with. As the watercourse approached the Broughton the country became
much more abrupt and broken, and after its junction with that river, the
stream wound through a succession of barren and precipitous hills, for
about fifteen miles, at a general course of south-west; these hills were
overrun almost everywhere with prickly grass and had patches of the
Eucalyptus dumosa scattered over them at intervals.

Up to the point where it left the hills, there were ponds of water in the
bed of the Broughton, but upon leaving them the river changed its
direction to the northward, passing through extensive plains and
retaining a deep wide gravelly channel, but without surface water, the
drainage being entirely underground, and the country around comparatively
poor and valueless.




Chapter III.



SPRING HILL--AN AGED NATIVE DESERTED BY HIS TRIBE--RICH AND EXTENSIVE
PLAINS--SURPRISE A PARTY OF NATIVES--ROCKY RIVER--CRYSTAL BROOK--FLINDERS
RANGE--THE DEEP SPRING--MYALL PONDS--ROCKY WATER HOLES--DRY
WATERCOURSE--REACH THE DEPOT NEAR MOUNT ARDEN--PREPARE FOR LEAVING THE
PARTY--BLACK SWANS PASS TO THE NORTH--ARRIVAL OF THE WATERWITCH.