ken by a shower of rain, and at eleven miles, as
it was still raining slightly, we encamped on the edge of another
lake. During the evening we saved sufficient water by means of our
tarpaulins for all our own requirements. During the night it also
rained at intervals, and we collected a lot of water and put it into a
large canvas trough used for watering the camels when they cannot
reach the water themselves. I carried two of these troughs, which held
sufficient water for them all when at a watered camp, but not
immediately after a dry stage; then they required to be filled three
or four times. On the following morning, however, as we had but just
left the depot, the camels would not drink, and as all our vessels
were full, the water in the trough had to be poured out upon the
ground as a libation to the Fates. In consequence of having to dry a
number of things, we did not get away until past midday, and at eleven
miles upon our course, after passing two small salt lagoons, we came
upon a much larger one, where there was good herbage. This we took
advantage of, and encamped there. Camels will not eat anything from
which they cannot extract moisture, by which process they are enabled
to go so long without water. The recent rain had left some sheets of
water in the lake-bed at various places, but they were all as salt as
brine--in fact brine itself.

The country we passed through to-day was entirely scrubs, except where
the salt basins intervened, and nothing but scrubs could be seen
ahead, or indeed in any other direction. The latitude of the camp on
this lake was 29 degrees 24' 8", and it was twenty-two miles from the
dam. We continued our march and proceeded still upon the same course,
still under our usual routine of steering. By the fifth night of our
travels we had met no water or any places that could hold it, and
apparently we had left all the salt basins behind. Up to this point we
had been continually in dense scrubs, but here the country became a
little more open; myal timber, acacia, generally took the places of
the mallee and the casuarinas; the spinifex disappeared, and real
grass grew in its place. I was in hopes of finding water if we should
debouch upon a plain, or perhaps discover some ranges or hills which
the scrubs might have hidden from us. On the sixth day of our march we
entered fairly on a plain, the country being very well grassed. It
also had several kinds of salsolaceous bushes upon it; these f