it appeared to me that a due
northerly course would about meet my views, and that if the Stony Desert
was what I supposed it to have been, I should come upon it about two
degrees to the eastward of where I had already crossed it. In pushing up
to the north I also hoped that I might find a termination to the sandy
ridges, although I could not expect to get into any very good country,
for from what we saw to the north it was evidently much lower than that
over which we had passed, and I therefore looked for a cessation of the
sandy ridges we had before been so severely distressed on passing.

I shook hands with Mr. Browne about half-past eight on the morning of the
9th of October, and left the depot camp at Fort Grey, with Mr. Stuart,
Morgan and Mack, taking with me a ten-weeks' supply of flour and tea. I
once more struck into the track I had already twice traversed, with the
intention of turning to the north as soon as I should gain Strzelecki's
Creek. As we rode over the sand-hills, they appeared as nothing to me,
after the immense accumulations of sand we had crossed when Mr. Browne
and I were out together. We stopped short of the flat in which we had
sunk the largest well on that occasion, to give the horses time to feed a
little before sunset, and not to hurry them too much at starting. The day
was exceedingly warm, and the wind from the N.E. A few heat-drops fell
during the night, but the short thunder shower at the Depot on the Sunday
did not appear to have extended so far as where we then were.
Nevertheless it would appear, that these low regions are simultaneously
affected by any fall of rain; for there can be no doubt as to that of
July having extended all over the desert interior, and the drizzling
shower we had at the head of the northern Eyre's Creek, just as we were
about to retrace our steps, having been felt the same day at the camp. I
have just said that the day had been exceedingly hot, with the wind from
the N.E., a quarter from whence we might naturally have expected that it
would have blown warm; but I would observe, that before Mr. Browne and I
passed the Stony Desert on our recent excursion, the winds from that
point were unusually cold, and continued so until after we had crossed
the Desert, and pushed farther up to the north, when they changed from
cold to heat. I will not venture any conjecture as to the cause of this,
because I can give no solution to the question, but leave it to the
ingenuity o