etermined
on the morrow to pursue a northerly course directly into the interior, in
the hope that ere the surface water left by the thunder-storm should be
dried up, I might reach such another creek as the one I was about to
quit, or find some other such permanent place of safety; leaving the
examination of the upper branches of the creek, and of the mountain
ranges to the period of my return. Accordingly on the morning of the
13th, we left our position, crossing to the proper right bank of the
creek, and breaking through the nearer box tree forest, traversed open
plains, the soil of which was principally sand, but there was an
abundance of grass upon them, and they were somewhat elevated above the
more alluvial flats near the creek. At 2 1/2 miles we crossed a large
tributary from the N.E., the main branch trended to the N.W., and we kept
the belt of trees in view as we rode along, during the greater part of
the day. At seven miles we descended a little from the grassy plains to a
flooded plain of considerable extent, but again rose from it to the sandy
level, and finding a small puddle of rain water at 36 miles I halted.

As I was about to trust entirely to the supply of water left by the
recent storm, and knew not to what distance it had extended, I felt it
necessary to take every precaution to insure our retreat. We worked,
therefore, by the light of the moon, and dug a square pit, into which we
drained all the water that remained after the horses had satisfied
themselves in the morning, but the quantity was so small that I scarcely
hoped to derive any advantage from it on our return; and it was really
the zeal of Morgan and Mack that induced me to allow them to finish it.
Warm as the weather had been at Fort Grey, the night was bitterly cold,
with the wind from the S.S.E. We left this, our first well, at early
dawn, riding across a continuation of the same grassy and sandy land as
that we had journeyed over the day before, only that it had many bare
patches upon it full of water, the undersoil being a red clay. The same
kind of tree we had seen to the eastward, between the old Depot and the
Darling, and which I had there taken to be a species of Juglans,
prevailed hereabouts in sheltered places.

The creek line of trees was was still visible to our left, so that it
must have come up a little more to the north. We crossed several native
paths leading to it: the impression of an enormous foot was on one of
them. At