arently turned to the eastward, and was lost on the plain, and
crossing some stony ground, passed between two little ranges. We then
found ourselves on the brow of a deep valley that separated us from the
little cones we purposed ascending. The side of it which trended to the
north-west was very abrupt and stony, and it was with some difficulty we
descended into it; but that done, we left Morgan and Flood with the cart,
and ascended the nearer peak.

From the summit of the highest of the cones we had a clear view round
more than one half of the horizon. Immediately at the base of the ranges
northwards, there was a long strip of plain, and beyond it a dark and
gloomy scrub, that swept round from S.W. to E., keeping equi-distant from
the hills, excepting at the latter point where it closed in upon them. On
the N.W. horizon there was a small low undulating range, apparently
unconnected with any other, and distant about 40 miles. No change had
taken place in the geological formations of the main range. The same
abrupt points, and detached flat-topped hills, characterised their
northern as well as the southern extremity. We had now however reached
their termination northwards, but they continued in an easterly direction
until they were totally lost in the dark mass of scrub that covered and
surrounded them, not one being of sufficient height to break the line of
the horizon. To the S.W. a column of smoke was rising in the midst of the
scrub, otherwise that desolate region appeared to be uninhabited. On
descending from the peak, we turned to the N.W. along the line of a
water-course at the bottom of the valley, tracing it for about four miles
with every hope of finding the element we were in search of in its green
bed, but we gained the point where the valley opened out upon the plains,
and halted under disappointment, yet with good grass for the horses. Our
little bivouac was in lat. 29 degrees 2 minutes 14 seconds S. The above
outline will enable the reader to judge of the character of the hills,
that still existed to the eastward of us, and the probability of their
continuance or cessation. I must confess that they looked to me as if
they had been so many small islands, off the point of a larger one. They
rose in detached groups from the midst of the plains, as such islands
from the midst of the sea, and their aspect altogether bore such a
striking resemblance to many of the flat-topped islands round the
Australian continen