o sooner commenced pulling than he perspired most profusely.
We kept a more regular course than on the previous day, over a country
that underwent no change. Before we started I left a nine gallon cask of
water in a small flat to ease the horse, and as the water in the tank had
almost all leaked out, his load was comparatively light. Still it was a
laborious task to draw the cart over such a country. Fortunately for us
the weather was cool, as the wind continued south, for I do not know what
we should have done if we had been exposed to the same heat Mr. Browne
and myself had experienced on our return from the little stony ranges now
about 10 miles to the westward of us. A little before noon the wind
shifted to the N.E.; I had at this time stopped to rest the horse, but we
immediately experienced a change of temperature, and the thermometer
which stood at 81 degrees rose before we again started to 93 degrees, and
at half-past three had attained 119 degrees. We were then in one of the
most gloomy regions that man ever traversed. The stillness of death
reigned around us, no living creature was to be heard; nothing visible
inhabited that dreary desert but the ant, even the fly shunned it, and
yet its yielding surface was marked all over with the tracks of native
dogs.

We started shortly after noon, and passed a pointed sand-hill, from
whence we could not only see the stony range but also the main range of
hills. The little peak on which Mr. Browne and I took bearings on our
last journey bore 150 degrees, the pass through which we had descended
into the plains 170 degrees, when I turned however to take bearings of
the stony range it had disappeared, having been elevated by refraction
above its true position. It bore about N.W. 1/2 W., distant from eight to
nine miles. It was again some time after sunset before we halted, on a
small flat that might contain two or at the most three acres. There was
some silky grass upon it, but this I knew the horse would not eat,
neither had I more than a pint of oats to give him. Our latitude here was
28 degrees 22 minutes 0 seconds.

On the morning of the 13th we still pushed on, leaving, as before, a cask
of water to pick up on our return. I had been obliged to limit the horse
to six gallons a day, but where he had been in the habit of drinking from
25 to 30, so small a quantity would not suffice. We had not gone many
miles when he shewed symptoms of exhaustion, and rather tottered than