surface. As we continued to advance,
the water however constantly retreated before us and at last surrounded
us. I now found that we had been deceived by mirage; the apparent islands
being really such only when these plains are covered by the sea. In many
places the sandy mud was so moist that we sank deeply into it, and after
travelling for fifteen miles on a north-east course I could still see no
limit to these plains in that direction, nor could I either then or on
any subsequent occasion find the channel which connected them with the
sea. The only mode of accounting for their being flooded is to suppose
that the sea at times pours in over the low land which lies to the north
of the Gascoyne, and flows northward through channels which will be seen
in the chart of this part of the country; but I then believed, and still
consider, that there is hereabouts a communication with some large
internal water.

We saw no tracks of natives and only a few of emus and native dogs. The
few portions of rising ground which lay near the edge of these extensive
plains were sandy, scrubby, and unpromising; but what we saw was so
little that no opinion of the country could fairly be deduced from it. We
dug in several places on the flats and in their vicinity but all the
water we could find was salt; whereas in the narrow range of sandhills
separating them from the sea we had discovered abundance of fresh water
only four or five feet below the surface of the valleys lying between
these hills. As this range of more than thirty miles in length offered
many geological phenomena I called it Lyell's Range in compliment to the
distinguished geologist of that name; the plains themselves I named the
Plains of Kolaina (Deceit).

INDISPOSITION OF SEVERAL OF THE PARTY. SICKNESS FROM DELAY AND
DISAPPOINTMENT.

On my return to the boats I found that Mr. Smith was still unwell;
several other men were also complaining; I myself was wearied from
exertion and disappointment that my great discovery had dwindled away:
the place where we were was infested by land-crabs who kept running over
us continually, and the sand which drifted before the wind got into the
pores of the skin, and kept most of us in a constant state of painful
irritation. The night was therefore not a pleasant one.

March 9.

Throughout the night the winds had howled loudly and the surf broke
hoarsely upon the shore. The grey dawn of morning brought no comfort with
it: far out to s