ain, over which we had had so much
difficulty in travelling, and halted for a short time at the native well,
out of which numbers of birds flew as we approached. From the Box-tree
Forest we pushed on down the polygonum flat, where we had seen the native
woman who had secreted herself in the bush. A whole family was now in the
same place, but an old man only approached us. We were, indeed, passing,
when he called to us, expressly for the purpose of telling us that the
horse (Flood's) had gone away to the eastward. This native came out of
his way, and evidently under considerable alarm, to tell us this, and to
point out the direction in which he had gone, Our stock of presents being
pretty nearly exhausted, Mr. Browne, with his characteristic good nature,
gave him a striped handkerchief, with which he was much pleased. As it
was evident the poor horse had kept along the edge of the Desert, and as
he was a wandering brute, not caring for companions, it was uncertain to
what distance he had rambled, I did not, therefore, lose time by
attempting to recover him. We were all of us sure that he would not face
the Stony Desert, but he may still be alive, and wandering over that
sterile country. We stopped for the night on the long channel near the
sandy rise where we had before rested, about ten miles short of our camp,
and the trees on the muddy plain; and having effected our passage across
that plain and the Stony Desert, over which it was with extreme
difficulty that we kept our track, found ourselves on the 22nd, in the
little grassy valley, from which we had entered upon it; little water was
remaining, however, at the place where we had then stopped, so that I
sent over to the sequestered spot Lewis had discovered, but the water
there had entirely disappeared. Flood managed to shoot a couple of ducks
(Teal), of which there were four or five that flew away to the
south-east. These two birds were, I may truly say, a God-send, and I beg
to assure the reader they were uncommonly good.

From this valley we had to cross the heavy sand ridges which had so
fatigued our horses before, and I hardly expected we should find water
nearer than the Fish Pond. We therefore started early to get over the
distance as soon as possible, and, as on the outward journey, had a most
severe task of it. The ridges were certainly most formidable, although
they were not of such size as those from which we had retreated. At six
miles we crossed the salt