y crossed. The whole country indeed over
which we had passed from the first creek, was without doubt very low, and
must sometimes be almost entirely under water, but what, it may be asked,
causes such inundation? Such indeed was the question I asked myself, but
I must say I could arrive at no satisfactory conclusion.

That these regions are subject to heavy rains I had not the slightest
doubt, but could the effect of heavy rains have produced these creeks,
short and uncertain in their course, rising apparently in one plain, to
spread over and terminate in another, for had we gone more to the
westward in our course than we did, it is probable we should never have
known of the existence of any of them. I was truly thankful that we had
thus fallen upon them, and considering how much our further success
depended on their continuance, I began to hope that we should find them a
permanent feature in the country.

About this period and two or three days previously, we observed a white
bank of clouds hanging upon the northern horizon, and extending from N.E.
to N.W. No wind affected it, but without in the least altering its shape,
which was arched like a bow, it gradually faded away about 3 p.m. Could
this bank have been over any inland waters?

At the point to which I have now brought the reader, we were in lat. 27
degrees 38 minutes S., and in long. 140 degrees 10 minutes by account,
and here, as I have observed, as in our journey to Lake Torrens, the N.E.
winds were invariably cold. On the 22nd we crossed the creek, and
traversed a large plain on the opposite side that was bounded in the
distance by a line of sand hills. On this plain were portions of ground
perfectly flat, raised some 12 or 18 inches above its general level; on
these, rhagodia bushes were growing, which in the distance looked like
large trees, in consequence of the strong refraction. The lower ground of
these plains had little or no vegetation upon it, but bore the appearance
of land on which water has lodged and subsided; being hard and baked in
some places, but cracked and blistered in others, and against the sides
of the higher portions of the plain, a line of sticks and rubbish had
been lodged, such as is left by a retiring tide, and from this it seemed
that the floods must have been about a foot deep on the plain when it was
last inundated. At 4 1/2 miles we reached its western extremity, and
ascending the line of sand hills by which it is bounded on t