of grass. They
occupied the lowest parts, and umbrageous clumps of casuarinae in such
situations often led me on unsuccessful searches for water, until I was
almost convinced that these trees only grew where none could possibly
ever be.

The prospect of finding any at length seemed almost hopeless, but I had
determined to try the result of as long a journey as could be
accomplished this day, with the intention of giving, in the event of
failure, the little water remaining in our cask to the animals; and then
to retrace our steps during the night and the cool part of the following
day so as to regain, if possible, the depot camp next evening.

Meanwhile my party, faint with heat and thirst, toiled after me. In some
parts of these parched plains numerous prints of human feet appeared, but
the soil which had evidently been very soft when these impressions were
made was now baked as hard as brick, and although we felt that:

On desert sands twere joy to scan
The rudest steps of fellow man,

these made us only more sensible of the altered state of the surface at
that time. Water had evidently once lodged in every hollow, and the
prints of the kangaroo when pursued by the natives and impeded by the mud
were visible in various places.

At five miles we entered a wood of pinetrees (callitris) the first we had
seen since we left the Namoi; but on passing through it we discovered no
other change. A thick wood of Acacia pendula fell next in our way, and
then several patches of casuarinae. On approaching one of these I
observed a very slight hollow and, on following it to the right, or
eastward, about a mile (the party having in the meantime halted) I
perceived a few dry leaves in a heap, as if gathered by water falling in
that direction.

WATER DISCOVERED BY MY HORSE.

Trifling as this circumstance was it was nevertheless unusual on that
level surface, and I endeavoured to trace the slope downwards until my
horse, who at other times would neigh after his companions, here pulled
hard on the rein, as if to cross a slight rise before me. I laid the
bridle on his neck while he proceeded eagerly forward over the rise, and
through some wood, beyond which my eyes were once more blessed with the
sight of several ponds of water, with banks of shining verdure, the whole
extended in a line which resembled the bed of a considerable stream. I
galloped back with the good news to the party whose desperate thirst
seemed to make them inc