etween five and six miles in breadth, but we
managed it, and at that distance found ourselves on the banks of another
creek, in the bed of which there was plenty of grass but no water. I was
however exceedingly anxious to give the horses a day's rest; for several
of them were seriously griped, and had either taken something that
disagreed with them, or were beginning to suffer from constant work and
irregularity of food. Mr. Browne too was unwell and Lewis complaining, so
that it was advisable to indulge ourselves if possible. I therefore
determined to trace the creek downwards, in the hope of finding water,
and at a mile came upon a shallow pond where I gladly halted, for by this
time several of the horses had swollen to a great size, and were
evidently in much pain.

After arranging the little bivouac our attention was turned to the
horses, and Mr. Browne found it necessary to bleed Flood's horse, to
allay the inflammatory symptoms that were upon him. Still however he got
worse, and no remedy we had in our power to apply seemed to do him good.
The poor animal threw himself down violently on the ground, and bruised
himself all over, so that we were obliged to fasten him up, but as there
appeared to be no fear of his wandering, at sunset he was allowed to be
loose. He remained near me for the greater part of the night, and was
last seen close to where I was lying, but in the morning was no where to
be found, and although we searched for a whole day, and made extensive
sweeps to get on his track we never saw him more, and concluded he had
died under some bush. This was the horse we recovered on the Murray, the
same that had escaped from the government paddock in Adelaide. The other
animals had in some measure recovered, and the additional day of rest
they got while we were searching for Flood's horse, enabled me to resume
my journey on the last day of August. Our course being one of 335 degrees
to the west of north, or nearly N.N.W., and that of the sandy ridges
being 340 degrees we necessarily crossed them at a very acute angle, and
the horses suffered a good deal. In the afternoon we travelled over large
bare plains, of a most difficult and distressing kind, the ground
absolutely yawning underneath us, perfectly destitute of vegetation, and
denuded of timber, excepting here and there, where a stunted box-tree was
to be seen. While on the sand hills, the general covering of which was
spinifex, there were a few hakea and