e a most cheerless view met my
sight to the north, east, and west; not a break was visible--nothing but
thicket in all directions, with scarcely an undulation of any kind; the
view to the north-west was most extensive--nearly twenty miles of thicket
could be seen, with a surface as level as the sea. Not considering it
prudent to proceed onwards, the thicket being too dense to advance
without the greatest difficulty, the saddle-bags being almost torn to
pieces, and the horses quite worn out with continual exertions in
dragging their packs through the thickets, we were compelled to return to
the well passed yesterday morning. The country seen to the northwards was
of too flat and sandy a character to give any hope of finding water or
grass--and without these requisites, it would be incurring great risk of
losing the horses, and of course defeating the object of the expedition;
therefore, taking advantage of the partially cleared tracts of yesterday,
we reached the watering place at 4.30 p.m.

28th September.

This day we employed ourselves in repairing our pack-saddles, which it
was found necessary to restuff, as they had been padded with coarse
rushes; the saddle-bags had been torn to pieces, and the repairs of these
required more time than could be afforded in an evening's bivouac.

29th September.

Started at 8.35 a.m.; pursued a general course of 310 degrees, gradually
ascending the sandy downs on the north side of the valley for three
miles; it then turned to the north of west, and we again descended, and
found the bottom occupied by a narrow samphire flat, 50 to 100 yards
wide, over which the water runs during heavy rains, but it was now dry,
and in some parts covered with a thin crust of salt; 11.26 passed a
native well of slightly brackish water, amongst loose blocks of red
sandstone; a small well was passed at 11.50; the samphire flat then
changed to a small sandy channel, among large blocks of sandstone
belonging to the coal-formation: in one place the slate also cropped out.
Abundance of brackish water lay in small pools along the course of the
stream-bed, which at 1.0 p.m. changed its direction nearly west; we
followed it through a scrubby valley, with high hills on both sides, till
4.45, when we bivouacked just below the junction of a small gully from
the northwards, with a very remarkable sandstone hill about
three-quarters of a mile south; below this spot the valley trended to the
south-west, and was bo