l.] feet deep in most places. In many places the temperature
of the water was almost incredibly high, which induced me to try it
at several points. The mean of two on the shady side of the creek
gave 97 4/10 degrees. As may be imagined this water tasted
disagreeably warm, but we soon cooled some in water bags, and
thinking that it would be interesting to know what we might call
cool, I placed the thermometer in a pannikin containing some that
appeared delightfully so, almost cold in fact; its temperature was,
to our astonishment, 78 degrees. At half-past six, when a strong
wind was blowing from south, and temperature of air had fallen to
80 degrees, the lowest temperature of water in the hose, that had
been exposed to the full effect of evaporation for several hours
was 72 degrees. This water for drinking appeared positively
cold, and is too low a temperature to be pleasant under the
circumstances. A remarkable southerly squall came on between five
and six P.M., with every appearance of rain. The sky however soon
cleared, but the wind continued to blow in a squally and irregular
manner from the same quarter at evening.

Wednesday, 19th December, 1860.--Started at a quarter-past eight A.
M., leaving what seemed to be the end of Cooper's Creek. We took a
course a little to the north of west, intending to try and obtain
water in some of the creeks that Sturt mentioned that he had
crossed, and at the same time to see whether they were connected
with Cooper's Creek, as appeared most probable from the direction
in which we found the latter running, and from the manner in which
it had been breaking up into small channels, flowing across the
plains in a north and north-north-west direction. We left on our
right the flooded flats on which this branch of the creek runs out,
and soon came to a series of sand ridges, the directions of which
were between north half-west and north-north-west. The country is
well grassed and supports plenty of salt bush. Many of the valleys
are liable to be inundated by the overflow of the main creek. They
have watercourses and polygonum flats bordered with box trees, but
we met with no holes fit to hold a supply of water. At about ten
miles we crossed a large earthy flat lightly timbered with box and
gum. The ground was very bad for travelling on, being much cracked
up and intersected by innumerable channels, which continually
carried off the water of a large creek. Some of the valleys beyond
this