a little water. The grass was much dried
up and limited to the flat near the creek, the more remote portions being
covered with triodia. The day was hot and nearly calm, but at noon we
were benefited by a few passing clouds, and at 6.0 p.m. a dry
thunderstorm cooled the air from 100 degrees to 93 degrees, but the
temperature rose at 8.0 to 96 degrees.

13th March.

At 5.50 steered north 10 degrees east, crossing the creek several times,
and at 10.0 turned to the north-north-east and north-east, crossing the
sandstone hills, round which the creek turns at a right angle, and at
12.10 p.m. camped on the creek near our track of the 29th February.
Nearly all the pools of water had dried up, and the water at the camp had
become brackish; some of the pools, however, must be permanent, as there
were small fish in them. A great party of natives appeared to be
travelling up the creek, as fresh fires are constantly seen to the
north-east along its course. A cool breeze from the west to north-east
moderated the heat, the temperature at 2 p.m. 103 degrees; passing clouds
from the east in the afternoon.

FOLLOW UP STURT'S CREEK.

14th March.

Resumed our route and followed the creek upwards from 5.50 a.m. till 1.50
p.m., when we camped about three miles south-west of camp 45 at the first
pool before the atriplex flat. A short distance above the camp we crossed
a large sandy creek, which proved to be the cause of the change in the
character of Sturt's Creek below that point. As our route was at a
greater distance from the creek than in tracing it down, it gave a better
opportunity of ascertaining the nature of the country beyond the
influence of inundation; to the north-west a vast plain traversed by low
ridges of gravel and drift sand, clothed with a scanty growth of triodia
and a few hakea bushes, rose gradually from the creek, but on the
south-east a more abrupt sandstone slope terminated in a similar plain of
somewhat greater elevation, and showed that we were still within the
bounds of the desert. Moderate breeze from the north-west changing to
north-east; passing clouds; a slight shower at 11.0 p.m.

15th March.

Resumed our route at 5.50 a.m., steering north 40 degrees east, one hour
into the triodia plain, then north 60 degrees east till 9.20 a.m., when
we reached the first large pool in the creek, and rounding the bend
camped at one of the narrow pools above the sandstone ridges. The water
in the larger pools had su