e services of the animal I had been obliged to
have shot up to the north. The only objection to my new purchase was that
it was a little mare and already forward in foal. At Port Lincoln,
however, I was not likely to meet with any horses for sale, and did not
therefore deem it prudent to lose the only opportunity that might occur
of getting an animal of some kind. After quitting Mr. Dutton's, I
followed a dray road leading towards Port Lincoln. For the most part we
passed through green valleys with rich soil and luxuriant pasturage, but
occasionally intersected by poor sandy or gravelly soil of a saline
nature; the water was abundant from recent heavy rains, and some of the
pools fresh; others, however, were very brackish. The hills adjoining the
valley were grassy, and lightly wooded on their slopes facing the valley;
towards the summits they became scrubby, and beyond, the scrub almost
invariably made its appearance. Altogether we passed this day through a
considerable tract of country, containing much land that is well adapted
for sheep or cattle, and with a fair proportion suitable for agriculture.
It is by far the best portion of the available country in the Port
Lincoln peninsula, and I could not help regretting it should be so
limited in extent. I had now travelled all the three sides of the
triangle, and had obtained extensive views from various heights along
each of these lines of route; I had crossed from Port Lincoln to Streaky
Bay, from Streaky Bay to the head of Spencer's Gulf, and from the head of
Spencer's Gulf down to Port Lincoln again. In the course of these
journeys, I had spared no toil nor exertion, to make my examination as
complete and as useful as possible, though my labours were not rewarded
by commensurate success. The great mass of the peninsula is barren, arid,
and worthless; and although Port Lincoln possesses a beautiful, secure,
and capacious harbour, with a convenient and pretty site for a town, and
immediately contiguous to which there exists some extent of fine and
fertile soil, with several good grassy patches of country beyond; yet it
can never become a large or important place, in consequence of its
complete isolation, except by water, from every other, and the limited
nature of its own resources.

For one or two large stock-holders, who wish to secure good grazing
ground, and be apart from others, it might answer well, but even they
would ordinarily labour under difficulties and disa