ared to be inland, I took to be the middle
Back mountain of Flinders; between our camp and the eastern shores of the
gulf, the land was generally low, with a good deal of scrub upon it, and
nearer the shores appeared to be swampy, and subject to inundation by the
tides.

June 29.--Upon moving from our camp this morning we commenced following
under Flinders range. From Crystal brook, the hills rise gradually in
elevation as they trend to the northward, still keeping their western
slopes almost precipitous to the plains, out of which they appear to rise
abruptly. Our course was much embarrassed by the gullies and gorges
emanating from the hills, in some of which the crossing place was not
very good, and in all the horses got much shaken, so that when we arrived
at a large watercourse defined by gum trees, and in which was a round
hole of water that had been on a former occasion called by me "The Deep
Spring," I halted the party for the night and found that the horses were
a good deal fatigued. Fortunately there was excellent food for them, and
plenty of water. The place at which we encamped was upon one of the
numerous watercourses, proceeding from the gorges of Flinders range. It
had a wide gravelly bed, divided into two or three separate channels, but
without a drop of water below the base of the hills, excepting where we
bivouacked, at this point, there was a considerable extent of rich black
alluvial soil, and in the midst of it a mound of jet black earth,
surrounded by a few reeds. In the centre of the mound was a circular deep
hole containing water, and apparently a spring: the last time I was here,
in 1839 it was full to overflowing, but now, though in the depth of
winter, I was surprised and chagrined to see the water so much lower than
I had known it before. It was covered up too so carefully with bushes and
boughs, that it was evident the natives sometimes contemplated its being
quite dried up, [Note 3: In October 1842, I again passed this way, in
command of a party of Police sent overland to Port Lincoln, to search for
Mr. C. C. Dutton: the spring was then dried up completely.] and had taken
this means as the best they could adopt for shading and protecting the
water. On the other hand the numerous well beaten tracks leading to this
solitary pool appeared to indicate that there was no other water in the
neighbourhood. We saw kangaroos, pigeons and birds of various
descriptions, going to it in considerable number