re, if it has a bottom, seems composed
entirely of hot, blue, briny mud. Our exertions in extricating the
horse made us extremely thirsty; the hill looked more inviting the
nearer we got to it, so, still hoping to reach it, I followed up the
arm for about seven miles in a north west direction. It proved,
however, quite impassable, and it seemed utterly useless to attempt to
reach the range, as we could not tell how far we might have to travel
before we could get round the arm. I believe it continues in a
semicircle and joins the lake again, thus isolating the hill I wished
to visit. This now seemed an island it was impossible to reach. We
were sixty-five miles away from the only water we knew of, with no
likelihood of any nearer; there might certainly be water at the mount
I wished to reach, but it was unapproachable, and I called it by that
name; no doubt, had I been able to reach it, my progress would still
have been impeded to the west by the huge lake itself. I could get no
water except brine upon its shores, and I had no appliances to distil
that; could I have done so, I would have followed this feature,
hideous as it is, as no doubt sooner or later some watercourses must
fall into it either from the south or the west. We were, however, a
hundred miles from the camp, with only one man left there, and
sixty-five from the nearest water. I had no choice but to retreat,
baffled, like Eyre with his Lake Torrens in 1840, at all points. On
the southern shore of the lake, and apparently a very long way off, a
range of hills bore south 30 degrees west; this range had a pinkish
appearance and seemed of some length. Mr. Carmichael wished me to call
it McNicol's Range, after a friend of his, and this I did. We turned
our wretched horses' heads once more in the direction of our little
tank, and had good reason perhaps to thank our stars that we got away
alive from the lone unhallowed shore of this pernicious sea. We kept
on twenty-eight miles before we camped, and looked at two or three
places, on the way ineffectually, for some signs of water, having gone
forty-seven miles; thermometer in shade 103 degrees, the heat
increasing one degree a day for several days. When we camped we were
hungry, thirsty, tired, covered all over with dry salt mud; so that it
is not to be wondered at if our spirits were not at a very high point,
especially as we were making a forced retreat. The night was hot,
cloudy, and sultry, and rain clouds gath