idea of the danger in that respect, I may mention that there are
places where, for a distance of two or three miles, neither a
bullock nor a horse could get to the water with safety, and it was
with difficulty that we could approach it ourselves; the safest
spots are at the lower end of the waterhole, where the creeks run
out on the plains. A peculiar geological feature that I have never
seen so strongly exhibited elsewhere is, that the watercourses on
these plains have a strong tendency to work away to the south and
south-west; the fall of the ground, as shown by the flow of the
flood water, being to the west and north-west. I found that at
almost every place where a portion of the creek ran out, the small
branches into which it split before disappearing, struck off at
nearly right angles to the creek, and that the flow of the water on
the level plain was invariably in a west or north-westerly
direction; whereas the creeks generally had a course considerably
to the south and west, more especially before running out. The
branch creeks and waterholes are always lined with box trees and
polygonum bushes; they are generally situated between or near
sandhills, and have doubtless been formed by the rush of water
consequent on the interference of these hills by the general flow.
In some places the direction of the sand ridges was the course of
the creeks, trending to the southward; but I allude to the tendency
as exhibited on the open plain, with no sand ridges near the creek.

Country to the north of Camp 63,--Cooper's.--During our stay at
Camp 63, from which spot we found it necessary to remove for
several reasons, but chiefly because the rats attacked our stores
in such numbers that we could keep nothing from them, unless by
suspending it in the trees, four excursions were made to the north
of that place in search of a practicable route to the Gulf. The