grassed locality, he made a
short trip to the west. On the 4th of August he found himself on the edge
of an immense shallow, sandy basin, in which water was standing in
detached sheets, "as blue as indigo, and as salt as brine." This he took
to be a part of Lake Torrens. He returned to the new depot, called Fort
Grey, which was sixty or seventy miles to the north-west of the Glen, and
arranged matters for his final departure.

McDouall Stuart was left in charge of the depot. Dr. Browne accompanied
the leader, and on the 14th of August a start was made. For some
distance, owing to the pools of surface water left by the recent rain,
they had no difficulty in keeping a straightforward course. The country
they passed over consisted of large, level plains, intersected by
sand-ridges; but they crossed numerous creeks with more or less water in
all of them. To one of these creeks Sturt gave the name of Strzelecki.
Finally they reached a well-grassed region which greatly cheered them
with the prospect of success it held out. Suddenly they were confronted
with a wall of sand; and for nearly twenty miles they toiled over
successive ridges. Fortunately they found both water and grass, but the
unexpected check to their brighter anticipations was depressing. Nor did
a walk to the extremity of one of the ridges serve to raise their
spirits.

Sturt saw before him what he describes as an immense plain, of a dark
purple hue, with a horizon like that of the sea, boundless in the
direction in which he wished to proceed. This was Sturt's Stony Desert.
That night they camped within its dreary confines, and during the next
day crossed an earthy plain, with here and there a few bushes of
polygonum growing beside some straggling channel in which they
occasionally found a little muddy rain-water remaining. At night when
they camped just before dusk, they sighted some hills to the north, and,
on examining them through the telescope, they discerned dark shadows on
the faces, as if produced by cliffs. Next morning they made for these
hills, in the hope of finding a change of country and feed for the
horses, but they were disappointed. Sand ridges in repulsive array
confronted them once more. "Even the animals," writes Sturt, "appeared to
regard them with dismay."

Over plains and sand dunes, the former full of yawning cracks and holes,
the party pushed on, subsisting on scanty pools of muddy water and
fast-sinking native wells. On the 3rd of Se