f which they might bridge the dry gap between them and the line.

The long delay exhausted the supply of rations, but by means of birds --
ducks and pigeons -- horseflesh, and the usual edible bush plants --
blue-bush and pigweed -- the party fared sufficiently well.

During their detention at this camp, many short excursions were made, and
the country traversed was found to be mostly richly grassed downs. Where
flooded country was encroached upon, the dry beds of former lakes were
found, encircled in all cases with a ring of dead trees.

In January, 1879, the thunderstorms set in, and the party reached
Powell's Creek telegraph station in safety.

This expedition opened up a good deal of fine pastoral country, which is
now all stocked and settled.

Western Australia was still busy in the field of exploration. In 1876
Adam Johns and Phillip Saunders started from Roebourne and crossed to the
overland line in South Australia. Ostensibly theirs was a prospecting
expedition; but as the country to the eastward of the Fitzroy River was
then unknown, it was an important exploration event. They were
unsuccessful in finding gold, but on their arrival at the line they
reported having passed through good pastoral country.

There is no doubt that the east and west tracks of the Queensland
explorers, and of Alexander Forrest,* did more to throw open that part of
Australia to settlement than did the north and south journey of Stuart,
more important as that one was from the purely geographical point of
view. Stuart led the way across the centre of the continent, but even
after the telegraph line was constructed on his route, very little was
known of the country to the east and the west.

*[Footnote.] See Chapter 19.

The South Australian Government had several times made slight attempts to
reach the Queensland border, but in 1878, they sent out H.V. Barclay to
make a trigonometrical survey of most of the untraversed country between
the line and the Queensland boundary. Barclay left Alice Springs, of
which station he first fixed the exact geographical position by a series
of telegraphic exchanges with the observatory in Adelaide. Barclay had
much dry country to contend against, but managed to reach a north point
close to Scarr's furthest south. He did not, however, on that occasion,
actually arrive at the Queensland border, but explored the territory on
the South Australian side. During the conduct of the survey he discovered
an