e their first existence. It struck me then, and calmer
reflection confirms the impression, that the whole of the low interior I
had traversed was formerly a sea-bed, since raised from its sub-marine
position by natural though hidden causes; that when this process of
elevation so changed the state of things, as to make a continuous
continent of that, which had been an archipelago of islands, a current
would have passed across the central parts of it, the direction of which
must have been parallel to the sandy ridges, and consequently from east
to west, or nearly so--that also being the present dip of the interior,
as I shall elsewhere prove. I further think, that the line of the Stony
Desert being the lowest part of the interior, the current must there have
swept along it with greater force, and have either made the breach in the
sandy ridges now occupied by it, or have prevented their formation at the
time when, under more favourable circumstances, they were thrown up on
either side of it. I do not know if I am sufficiently clear in
explanation, finding it difficult to lay down on paper all that crowds my
own mind on this subject; neither can I, without destroying the interest
my narrative may possess, now bring forward the arguments that gradually
developed themselves in support of the foregoing hypothesis.

Although I had been unable to penetrate to the north-west of Lake
Torrens, that basin appeared to me to have once formed part of the back
waters of Spencer's Gulf; still I long kept in view the possibility of
its being connected with some more central body of water. Having however
gained a position so much higher to the north, and almost on the same
meridian, and having crossed so remarkable a feature as the Stony Desert
(which, as I suppose, was once the focus of a mighty current, to judge
from its direction passing to the westward), I no longer encouraged hopes
which, if realized, would have been of great advantage to me, or
regretted the circumstances by which I was prevented from more fully
examining the north-east and northern shores of Lake Torrens. I felt
doubtful of the immediate proximity of an inland sea, although many
circumstances combined to strengthen the impression on my mind that such
a feature existed on the very ground over which we had made our way. I
had assuredly put great credit on the statements of the solitary old man
who visited the Depot, but his information as far as we could judge had
tur