of
its bed. At Moorundi, on the Murray, where Eyre was then stationed as
Resident Magistrate, the party was mustered and the start made.

In addition to Poole, Sturt was accompanied by Dr. Browne, a thorough
bushman and an excellent surgeon, who went as a volunteer and personal
friend. With the party as surveyor's draftsman, went McDouall Stuart,
whose fame as explorer was afterwards destined nearly to equal that of
his leader. In addition there were twelve men, eleven horses, one
spring-cart, three bullock-drays, thirty bullocks, one horse-dray, two
hundred sheep, four kangaroo dogs, and two sheep dogs.

Eyre accompanied the expedition as far as Lake Victoria, which they
reached on the 10th of September, 1844. On the 11th of October they
arrived at Laidley's Ponds. This was the place from which Sturt intended
to leave the Darling for the interior, and where he expected to find,
from the account given him by the natives, a fair-sized creek heading
from a low range, visible at a distance to the north-west. But he found
the stream to be a mere surface channel, distributing the flood water of
the Darling into some shallow lakes about seven or eight miles distant.
Sturt despatched Poole and Stuart to this range to see if they could
obtain a glimpse of the country beyond to the north-west.

They returned with the rather startling intelligence that, from the top
of a peak of the range, Poole had seen a large lake studded with islands.

Although in his published journal, written some time after his return,
Sturt makes light of Poole's fancied lake, which of course was the effect
of a mirage, at that time his ardent fancy, and the extreme likelihood of
the existence of a lake in that locality, made him believe that he was on
the eve of an important discovery. In a letter to Mr. Morphett of
Adelaide, he wrote:--

"Poole has just returned from the range. I have not time to write over
again. He says there are high ranges to the North and North-West, and
water, a sea, extending along the horizon from South-West by South and
then East of North, in which there are a number of lofty ranges and
islands, as far as the eye can reach. What is all this? To-morrow we
start for the ranges, and then for the waters, the strange waters, on
which boat never swam and over which flag never floated. But both shall
ere long. We have the heart of the interior laid open to us, and shall be
off with a flowing sheet in a few days. Poole says that th