ng northwards. The country as we advanced became more open and
barren. We traversed plains covered with atriplex and rhagodiae, in the
midst of which there were large bare patches of red clay. In these rain
water lodges, but being exceedingly shallow they soon dry up and
their surfaces become cracked and blistered. From the point at which
we changed our course the ground gradually rose, and at 26 miles we
ascended a small sand hill with a little grass growing upon it.
From this hill we descended into and crossed a broad dry creek
with a gravelly bed, and as its course lay directly parallel to our own,
we kept in the shade of the gum-trees that were growing along its banks.
At about four miles beyond this point Topar called out to us to stop near
a native well he then shewed us, for which we might in vain have hunted.
From this we got a scanty supply of bad water, after some trouble in
cleaning and clearing it, insomuch that we were obliged to bale it out
frequently during the night to obtain water for our horses. This creek,
like others, was marked by a line of gum-trees on either side; and from
the pure and clean gravel in its bed, I was led to infer that it was
subject to sudden floods. We could trace the line of trees upon it
running upwards to the N.W. close up to the foot of the ranges, and down
southwards, until the channel seemed to be lost in the extensive flats of
that depressed region.

Topar called this spot "Murnco Murnco." As the horses had fared
indifferently during our stay, and he assured us there was a finer well
higher up the creek, we pushed on at an early hour the next morning,
keeping on the proper right bank of the creek, and having an open barren
country to the south, with an apparent dip to the south-west; to our
left, some undulations already noticed by us, assumed more the shape of
hills. The surface was in many places covered with small fragments of
white quartz, which together with a conglomerate rock cropped out of the
ground where it was more elevated. There was nothing green to meet the
eye, except the little grass in the bed of the creek itself, and a small
quantity on the plains.

At two miles on our former bearing Topar stopped close to another well,
but it was dry and worthless; we therefore pushed on to the next, and
after removing a quantity of rubbish, found a sufficiency of water both
for ourselves and the horses, but it was bitter to the taste, and when
boiled was as black as ink