hey
hopped on their hind legs, which, like the kangaroo, were much longer
than the fore, and held the tail perfectly straight and horizontal. At
this date they were a novelty to us, but we subsequently saw great
numbers of them, and ascertained that the natives frequented the sandy
ridges in order to procure them for food. Those we succeeded in capturing
were, I am sorry to say, lost from neglect.

On Monday I conducted the whole party to the new depot, which for the
present I shall call the Park, but as I was very unwilling that any more
time should be lost in pushing to the west, I instructed Mr. Stuart to
change the direction of the chained line to 75 degrees to the west of
south, direct upon Mount Hopeless, and to continue it until I should
overtake him. In this operation Mr. Browne kindly volunteered to assist
Mr. Stuart, as the loss of Mr. Piesse had so reduced my strength.

By the 30th I had arranged the camp in its new position, and felt myself
at liberty to follow after the chainers. Before I left, however, I
directed a stockyard to be made, in which to herd the cattle at night,
and instructed Davenport to prepare some ground for a garden, with a view
to planting it out with vegetables--pumpkins and melons. I left the camp
with Flood, at 10 a.m. on the above day, judging that Mr. Browne was then
about 42 miles a-head of me, and stopped for the night in a little
sheltered valley between two sand hills, after a ride of 28 miles. The
country continued unchanged. Valleys or flats, more or less covered with
water, alternated with sandy ridges, on some of which there was no
scarcity of grass.

We had not ridden far on the following morning when a partial change was
perceptible in the aspect of the country. The flats became broader and
the sand hills lower, but this change was temporary. We gradually rose
somewhat from the general level, and crossed several sand hills, higher
than any we had seen. These sand hills had very precipitous sides and
broken summits, and being of a bright red colour, they looked in the
distance like long lines of dead brick walls, being perfectly bare, or
sparingly covered with spinifex at the base. They succeeded each other so
rapidly, that it was like crossing the tops of houses in some street; but
they were much steeper to the eastward than to the westward, and
successive gales appeared to have lowered them, and in some measure to
have filled up the intervening flats with the sand from