long the coast until we came to it, and in order that our
horses might carry no unnecessary loads, to take but a few quarts of
water in our kegs.

On the 18th we moved on, making a short stage of fourteen miles, through
a heavy, sandy, and scrubby country. At first I tried the beach, but
finding the sand very loose and unsuitable for travelling, I was again
compelled to enter the scrub behind the sea-shore ridge, travelling
through a succession of low scrubby undulations, with here and there the
beds of dried up lakes The traces of natives were now more recent and
numerous, but found principally near the bushes bearing the red berries,
and which grew behind the front ridge of the coast in the greatest
abundance. From this circumstance, and from our having now travelled a
considerable distance beyond the first water, I began to fear that the
second which had been spoken of by the natives must, if it existed at
all, be behind us instead of in advance, and that in reality the fruit we
saw, and not water, was the object for which the natives, whose tracks
were around us, were travelling to the westward. The day was cloudy, and
likely for rain, but after a few drops had fallen, the clouds passed
away. In the afternoon the overseer dug behind the sand-ridge, and at six
feet came to water, but perfectly salt.

March 19.--To-day we travelled onwards for twenty-six miles, through a
country exactly similar to that we had passed through yesterday. At three
in the afternoon we halted at an opening when there was abundance of
grass, though dry and withered. The indications of natives having
recently passed still continued, and confirmed me in my impression, that
they were on a journey to the westward, and from one distant water to
another, and principally for the purpose of gathering the fruit. We were
now forty miles from the last water, and I became assured that we had
very far to go to the next; I had for some time given over any hope of
finding the second water spoken of by the natives at the head of the
Bight, and considered that we must have passed it if it existed, long
ago, perhaps even in that very valley, or among those very sandhills
where we had searched so unsuccessfully on the 12th. There was now the
prospect of a long journey before us without water, as we had brought
only a little with us for ourselves, and which was nearly exhausted,
whilst our horses had been quite without, and were already suffering from
thirst.