t too, until a crossing could be
found. So we loaded up and steered East and then South-East to round the
swamps. Due West of Point Katharine, four miles distant, we found a large
freshwater lagoon surrounded by stony banks and ridges. It contained only
a few inches of water, but is capable of holding it to a depth of six
feet. Beyond it is a stony cotton-bush flat, and on it numerous white
clay-holes of water, almost hidden by the herbage.

Water-hens were so numerous that we could not pass by so good an
opportunity, and camped early in consequence, spending the rest of the
day in shooting these birds. The rest was a good thing for Breaden, too,
who had been hurt by Kruger as he struggled in the salt-bog. The next
morning we struck South, and by night found the lake again in our way.
From a high bank of rocks and stones we could see the arm that had first
blocked us, running round the foot of the hills and joining a larger lake
which spread before us to the South. Across it some high, broken
tablelands could be seen. There was no doubt from our position that this
was Lake Wells, but I had expected to find a tableland (the Van Treuer of
Wells) fringing the Northern shore. However, the Van Treuer does not run
nearly so far East as Wells supposed when he sighted it from the South.
No crossing could be effected yet, so the next day we continued along the
margin of the lake, along a narrow strip of salt-bush country hemmed in
between the lake and sandhills. On July 2nd we found the narrow place
where Wells had crossed in 1892; the tracks of his camels were still
visible in the soft ground. The crossing being narrow, and the bog
shallow--no more than a few inches above a hard bed of rock--we had no
trouble whatever.

We now followed the same course as Wells had done, passing Lyell-Brown
Bluff--from which Mount Elisabeth bears 339 degrees--and Parson's Bluff,
eventually striking the Bonython Creek. This, as described by Wells, is a
flat, shallow, and, in places, but ill-defined watercourse. In it are one
or two good deep pools, of which one is probably permanent. Fringing the
banks is a narrow strip of salt-bush and grass; beyond that mulga and
coarse grass. This narrow belt of good country continues down to the
lake, and as we saw it just after the rain looked fresh and green. There
is no extent, but sufficient to form a good resting-place for travelling
stock. Some cattle-tracks of recent date were visible, a small wild her