crossed our path, and at five or seven
miles from the lagoon we pulled up for the night in a small confined
valley in which there was a little grass, our poor horses sadly jaded and
fatigued, and our cart in a very rickety state. We could not well have
been in a more trying situation, and as Mr. Browne, and Lewis (one of the
men I had with me), went to examine the neighbourhood from a knoll not
far off, while there was yet light, I could not but reflect on the
singular fatality that had attended us. I had little hope of finding
water, and doubted in the event of disappointment whether we should get
any of the horses back to the Fish-pond, the nearest water in our rear.
Mr. Browne was late in returning to me, but the news he had to
communicate dispelled all my fears. He had, he told me, from the summit
of the knoll to which he went, observed something glittering in a dark
looking valley about three miles to the N.W., and had walked down to
ascertain what it was, when to his infinite delight he found that it was
a pool of water, covering no small space amongst rocks and stones. It was
too late to avail ourselves, however, of this providential discovery; but
we were on our way to the place at an early hour. There we broke our
fast, and I should have halted for the day to repair the cart, but there
was little or no grass in the valley for the horses, so that we moved on
after breakfast; but coming at less than a mile to a little grassy valley
in which there was likewise water, we stopped, not only to give the
animals a day of rest, and to repair the cart, but to examine the
country, and to satisfy ourselves as to the nature of the sudden and
remarkable change it had undergone. With this view, as soon as the camp
was formed, and the men set to repair the cart, Mr. Browne and I walked
to the extremity of a sandy ridge that bore N.N.W. from us, and was about
two miles distant. On arriving at this point we saw an immense plain,
occupying more than one half of the horizon, that is to say, from the
south round to the eastward of north. A number of sandy ridges, similar
to that on which we stood, abutted upon, and terminated in this plain
like so many head lands projecting into the sea. The plain itself was of
a dark purple hue, and from the elevated point on which we stood appeared
to be perfectly level.

There was a line of low trees far away upon it to the N.E.; and to the
north, at a great distance, the sun was shining on the