g plains, covered with stones or salsolaceous herbage,
excepting in the hollows, wherein there was a little grass. Behind us
were level stony plains, with small sandy undulations, bounded by brush,
over which the Black Hill, bearing S.S.E. from the Red Hill, was visible,
distant 10 miles. To the eastward the country was, as I have described
it, hilly. Westward at a quarter of a mile the low range, through which
Depot Creek forces itself, shut out from our view the extensive plains on
which it rises. This range extended longitudinally nearly north and
south, but was nowhere more than a mile and a half in breadth. The
geological formation of the range was slate, traversed by veins of
quartz, its interstices being filled with magnesian limestone. Steep
precipices and broken rugged gullies alternated on either side of this
creek, and in its bed there were large slabs of beautiful slate. The
precipices shewed the lateral formation with the rock split into the
finest laminae, terminating in sharp points. But neither on the ranges or
on the plains behind the camp was there any feed for the cattle, neither
were the banks of the creek or its neighbourhood to be put in comparison
with Flood's Creek in this respect, for around it there was an abundance
as well as a variety of herbage. Still the vegetation on the Depot Creek
was vigorous, and different kinds of seeds were to be procured. I would
dwell on this fact the more forcibly, because I shall, at a future stage
of this journey, have to remark on the state of the vegetation at this
very spot, that is to say, when the expedition was on its return from the
interior at the close of the year.

A few days after we had settled ourselves at the Depot, Mr. Browne had a
serious attack of illness, that might have proved fatal; but it pleased
God to restore him to health and reserve him for future usefulness. At
this time, too, the men generally complained of rheumatism, and I
suspected that I was not myself altogether free from that depressing
complaint, since I had violent pains in my hip joints; but I attributed
them to my having constantly slept on the hard ground, and frequently in
the bed of some creek or other. It eventually proved, however, that I had
been attacked by a more fearful malady than rheumatism in its worst
stage.

There being no immediate prospect of our removal, I determined to
complete the charts up to thepoint to which we had penetrated. I
therefore sent Mr. Stuar