ior there;
making up my mind at the same time to examine the country both to the
eastward and westward of the northern ranges before I should return to
the camp. Mr. Poole and Mr. Browne being too weak to venture on a
protracted excursion of such a kind, I took Mr. Stuart, my draftsman,
with me. I should have delayed this excursion for a few days, however,
only that I feared the total failure of the creeks in the distant
interior; I proposed, in the first place, to make for the last and most
distant water-hole in the little creek beyond the ranges. Thence to take
the light cart with one horse, carrying as much water as he could draw,
and with one man, on foot, to pursue a due north course into the brush. I
hoped by this arrangement to gain the 27th parallel, and in so doing to
satisfy myself as to the point on which I was so anxious. I selected a
fine young lad to accompany me, named Joseph Cowley, because I felt some
confidence in his moral courage in the event of any disaster befalling
us. On this occasion I had the tank reconstructed, and took all the
barrels I could, to enable me to go as far as possible, and the day after
I returned to the camp with Mr. Poole, again left it with Mr. Stuart,
Joseph, and Flood, in whose charge I intended to leave my horse during my
absence--during which I also proposed that Mr. Stuart should employ his
time tracing in the hills.

We reached the muddy creek at the foot of the hills at 2 p.m., after a
ride of 25 miles, over the stony and barren plains I have described, and
as the distance to the next water was too great for us to attempt
reaching it until late, we stopped here for the night. Some natives had
been on the creek in the early part of the day, and had apparently moved
down it to the eastward. The water had diminished fearfully since the
time we passed on our return from the north.

The day was cool and pleasant, as the wind blew from the south, and the
thermometer did not rise above 95 degrees.

We had not ridden four miles on the following morning, when we observed
several natives on the plain at a little distance to the south, to whom
we called out, and who immediately came to us. We stopped with these
people for more than two hours, in the hope that we should gain some
information from them, either as to when we might expect rain, or of the
character of the distant interior, but they spoke a language totally
different from the river tribes, although they had some few w