d traversed the country in search for
water. None any longer remained on the parched surface of the stony
desert, if I except what remained at the Depot, and the little in the
creek to the eastward. There were indeed the ravages of floods and the
vestiges of inundations to be seen in the neighbourhood of every creek we
had traced, and upon every plain we had crossed, but the element that had
left such marks of its fury was no where to be found.

From this period I gave up all hope of success in any future effort I
might make to escape from our dreary prison. Day after day, and week
after week passed over our heads, without any apparent likelihood of any
change in the weather. The consequences of our detention weighed heavily
on my mind, and depressed my spirits, for in looking over Mr. Piesse's
monthly return of provisions on hand, I found that unless some step was
taken to enable me to keep the field, I should on the fall of rain be
obliged to retreat. I had by severe exertion gained a most commanding
position, the wide field of the interior lay like an open sea before me,
and yet every sanguine hope I had ever indulged appeared as if about to
be extinguished. The only plan for me to adopt was to send a portion of
the men back to Adelaide. I found by calculation that if I divided the
party, retaining nine in all, and sending the remainder home, I should
secure the means of pushing my researches to the end of December, before
which time I hoped, (however much it had pleased Providence to stay my
progress hitherto,) to have performed my task, or penetrated the
heartless desert before me, to such a distance as would leave no doubt as
to the question I had been directed to solve.

The old man left us on the 17th with the promise of returning, and from
the careful manner in which he concealed the different things that had
been given to him I thought he would have done so, but we never saw him
more, and I cannot but think that he perished from the want of water in
endeavouring to return to his kindred.

I have repeatedly remarked that we had been deserted by all the feathered
tribes. Not only was this the case, but we had witnessed a second
migration of the later broods; after these were gone, there still
remained with us about fifty of the common kites and as many crows: these
birds continued with us for the offals of the sheep, and had become
exceedingly tame; the kites in particular came flying from the trees when
a whi