event of my being obliged to fall
back upon them. We started on the 11th, therefore, on a N.N.W. course,
and on the bearing of the low hills we had seen to the westward, and
which were now distinctly visible. For the first five miles we travelled
over firm and open plains of clay and sand, similar to the soil of the
plains of the Murray. At length the ground became covered with fragments
of quartz rock, ironstone, and granite. It appeared as if M'Adam had
emptied every stone he ever broke to be strewed over this metalled
region. The edges of the stones were not, however, rounded by attrition,
or mixed together, but laid on the plains in distinct patches, as if
large masses of the different rocks had been placed at certain distances
from each other and then shivered into pieces. The plains were in
themselves of undulating surface, and appeared to extend to some low
elevations on our left, connecting them with the main range as outer
features; although in the distance they only shewed as a small and
isolated line of hills detached about eleven miles from the principal
groups, from which we were gradually increasing our distance. This outer
feature prevented our seeing the north-west horizon until we gained an
elevated part of it, whence it appeared that we should soon have to
descend to lower ground than that on which we had been travelling. There
was a small eminence that just shewed itself above the horizon to the
N.N.W., and was directly in our course, enabling us to keep up our
bearings with the loftier and still visible peaks on the ranges. We found
the lower ground much less stony and more even than the higher ground,
and our horses got well over it. At 4 p.m. we observed a line of
gum-trees before us, evidently marking the line of a creek, the upper
branch of which we had already noticed as issuing from a deep recess in
the range. At the distance we were from the hills, we had little hope of
finding water; on approaching it, however, we alarmed some cockatoos and
other birds, and observed the recent tracks of emus in the bed of the
creek. Flood, who had ridden a-head, went up it in search for water. Mr.
Browne and I went downwards, and from appearances had great hopes that at
a particular spot we should succeed by digging, more especially as on
scraping away a little of the surface gravel with our hands, there were
sufficient indications to induce us to set Morgan to work with a spade,
who in less than an hour dug a