f which they must
obtain an abundant harvest. The weather, a little before this time, had
been very cold, but was now getting warmer every day. As we had been
advancing northwards towards the Tropics, I was not surprised at this.
The sky also was clear, generally speaking, but we had observed for the
last two or three months that it was invariably more cloudy at the full
of the moon than at any other period.

As our recent journey proved that in going to the westward on the 5th
inst., we had wandered from the creek, and that instead of holding on in
that direction, it had changed its course considerably to the eastward of
north, I determined, after we should all have had a day of rest, to trace
the channel upwards, in order to satisfy myself as to what became of it.
On the 10th, therefore, Mr. Browne and myself with Flood, mounted our
horses, with the intention of tracing it up until we should have
ascertained to what point it led. We passed through some very pretty
scenery in the proximity of the lagoon where it was lightly wooded, with
an abundance of grass; and I could not help reflecting with how much more
buoyant and pleasurable feelings we should have explored such a country,
when compared with the monotonous and sterile region we had wandered
over. The transition however from the rich to the barren, from the
picturesque to the contrary, was instantaneous. From the grassy woodland
we had been riding through, we debouched upon a barren plain without any
vegetation, and after crossing a small channel, intersected a second much
larger, a little beyond it. Both creeks evidently traversed different
parts of a large plain to the north, to which they had no apparent inlet.
There was a long tongue of sand, rather elevated, and running up into the
plain, to the termination of which we rode, and then found ourselves, as
it were, in the centre of an area, that was of great extent, and appeared
to be bounded on all sides, excepting that by which we had entered, by
sand hills. Unconnected lines of trees marked the courses of the channels
traversing it in different directions, but as the evening had far
advanced, and my object had been rather to look round about me than to
make any lengthened excursion, we returned to our little bivouac, with
the intention of devoting another day to the fuller examination of the
neighbourhood.

On the following day I proceeded with the whole party to the westward,
anticipating that the salt fo