so some plovers flew over us, and we heard some native dogs
howling to the south-west. At daylight, therefore, we rode in that
direction, with the hope of finding the element we now so much required.
At three miles a large grassy flat opened out to view upon our right,
similar to that at the termination of the Depot creek. It might have
contained 1000 acres, but there was not at the first glance, a tree to be
seen upon it This flat was bounded to the S.W. by a sand bank, lying at
right angles to the sand ridges we had been crossing. The latter,
therefore, ran down upon this bank in parallel, lines, some falling short
of, and others striking it; so that, as the drainage was towards the
embankment, the collected waters lodged against it. After crossing a
portion of the plain we saw some box-trees in a hollow, towards which we
rode, and then came upon a deep dry pond, in whose bottom the natives had
dug several wells, and had evidently lingered near it as long as a drop
of water remained. It was now clear that our further search for water
would be useless. I therefore turned on a course of 12 degrees to the
north of east for the muddy water we had passed two days before, and
halted there about an hour after sunset, having journeyed 42 miles. We
fell into our tracks going out about four miles before we halted, and
were surprised to observe that a solitary native had been running them
down. On riding a little further however, we noticed several tracks of
different sizes, as if a family of natives had been crossing the country
to the north-west. It is more than probable that their water having
failed in the hills, they were on their way to some other place where
they had a well.

Although we had ourselves been without water for two days, the mud in the
creek was so thick that I could not swallow it, and was really astonished
how Mr. Browne managed to drink a pint of it made into tea. It absolutely
fell over the cup of the panakin like thick cream, and stuck to the
horses' noses like pipe-clay. They drank sparingly however, and took but
little grass during the night. As we pursued our journey homewards on the
following day, we passed several flights of dotterel making to the south,
this being the first migration we had observed in that direction. These
birds were in great numbers on the plains of Adelaide the year preceding,
and had afforded good sport to my friend Torrens; we also observed a
flight of pelicans, wheeling about