necessary instructions to the overseer, whom I sent down to the head of
Spencer's Gulf, with orders to the master of the cutter to sail for
Adelaide, and to report what he had seen at the salt inlets in the east
side of Spencer's Gulf, which I had directed him to examine in the boats
whilst I was absent exploring to the north. His reply was, that there was
water enough for a ship to lie within one mile of the shore, that there
was a tolerable landing place, but that he had found no fresh water. The
men were employed during the day making a new tarpaulin from the canvas
sent up in the WATERWITCH. The following is a copy of the Report sent to
the Governor, and to the Chairman of the Committee for promoting the
expedition.


"Depot, near Mount Arden,
July 22nd, 1840.

"Sir,--I have the honour to acquaint you for the information of His
Excellency the Governor, and of the colonists interested in the northern
expedition, with the progress made up to the present date.

"I arrived here with my party all well, on the 3rd July instant, and on
the 6th I proceeded, accompanied by one of my native boys, on horseback,
to reconnoitre Lake Torrens and the country to the north of the depot,
leaving the party in camp to rest the horses and enable the overseer to
get up, from the head of Spencer's Gulf, the supplies kindly sent by His
Excellency the Governor in the WATERWITCH--her arrival having been
signalised the evening previous to my leaving. I arrived on the shores of
Lake Torrens the third day after leaving the depot, and have ascertained
that it is a basin of considerable magnitude, extending certainly over a
space varying in width from 15 to 20 miles, and with a length of from 40