e had some prizes in
store for us also. The next morning, after taking three hours to water
our horses, we started on the bearing of the high mount, which could
not be seen from the low ground, the bearing being south 18 degrees
west. We got clear of the low hills of the glen, and almost
immediately entered thick scrubs, varied by high sandhills, with
casuarina and triodia on them. At twelve miles I noticed the sandhills
became denuded of timber, and on our right a small and apparently
grassy plain was visible; I took these signs as a favourable
indication of a change of country. At three miles farther we had a
white salt channel right in front of us, with some sheets of water in
it; upon approaching I found it a perfect bog, and the water brine
itself. We went round this channel to the left, and at length found a
place firm enough to cross. We continued upon our course, and on
ascending a high sandhill I found we had upon our right hand, and
stretching away to the west, an enormous salt expanse, and it appeared
as if we had hit exactly upon the eastern edge of it, at which we
rejoiced greatly for a time. Continuing on our course over treeless
sandhills for a mile or two, we found we had not escaped this feature
quite so easily, for it was now right in our road; it appeared,
however, to be bounded by sandhills a little more to the left,
eastwards; so we went in that direction, but at each succeeding mile
we saw more and more of this objectionable feature; it continually
pushed us farther and farther to the east, until, having travelled
about fifteen miles, and had it constantly on our right, it swept
round under some more sandhills which hid it from us, till it lay east
and west right athwart our path. It was most perplexing to me to be
thus confronted by such an obstacle. We walked a distance on its
surface, and to our weight it seemed firm enough, but the instant we
tried our horses they almost disappeared. The surface was dry and
encrusted with salt, but brine spurted out at every step the horses
took. We dug a well under a sandhill, but only obtained brine.

This obstruction was apparently six or seven miles across, but whether
what we took for its opposite shores were islands or the main, I could
not determine. We saw several sandhill islands, some very high and
deeply red, to which the mirage gave the effect of their floating in
an ocean of water. Farther along the shore eastwards were several high
red sandhills;