mself in the night, and was actually able to water all the
horses in the morning. Labor omnia vincit. Last night there was a
heavy fall of dew, thermometer 28 degrees, but no frost or ice. I was
delighted to turn my back upon this wretched place.

The object of our present line was to reach the new hills seen from
the Anthony Range. Three of them appeared higher than, and isolated
from, the others. They now bore west of us--at least they should have
done so, and I hoped they did, for in such thick scrubs it was quite
impossible to see them. No matter for that, we steered west for them
and traversed a region of dense scrubs. I was compelled to ride in
advance with a bell on my stirrup to enable the others to hear which
way to come. In seventeen miles we struck a small gum creek without
water, but there was good herbage. In the scrubs to-day we saw a
native pheasant's nest, the Leipoa ocellata of Gould, but there were
no eggs in it. This bird is known by different names in different
parts of Australia. On the eastern half of the continent it is usually
called the Lowan, while in Western Australia it is known as the Gnow;
both I believe are native names. Another cold night, thermometer 26
degrees, with a slight hoar frost. Moving on still west through
scrubs, but not so thick as yesterday, some beautiful and open ground
was met till we reached the foot of some low ridges.

From the top of one of these, we had before us a most charming view,
red ridges of extraordinary shapes and appearance being tossed up in
all directions, with the slopes of the soil, from whence they seemed
to spring, rising gently, and with verdure clad in a garment of grass
whose skirts were fringed with flowers to their feet. These slopes
were beautifully bedecked with flowers of the most varied hues,
throwing a magic charm over the entire scene. Vast bare red

"Rocks piled on rocks stupendous hurled,
Like fragments of an earlier world,"

appeared everywhere, but the main tier of ranges for which I had been
steering was still several miles farther away to the west. Thinking
that water, the scarcest here of Nature's gifts, must surely exist in
such a lovely region as this, it was more with the keen and critical
eye of the explorer in search of that element, than of the admirer of
Nature in her wildest grace, that I surveyed the scene. A small gum
creek lay to the south, to which Mr. Tietkens went. I sent Gibson to a
spot about two miles off