e centre, I was completely fortified, and my sable
friends could no longer creep upon me to steal without my hearing them. I
spent great part of the day in charting, and took a few angles from the
tent, but did not dare to venture far away. At night, when it was dark, I
mounted guard with my gun for three hours, walking round outside the
tent, and firing off my gun before I lay down, which I did with my
clothes on, ready to get up at a moment's notice. Nothing, however,
disturbed me.

September 21.--I had been occupied during the greater part of the day in
charting, and in the evening was just shouldering my gun to mount guard
again, when I was delighted to see Mr. Scott returning with the dray, and
the party all safe. They had executed the duty entrusted to them well,
and had lost no time in rejoining me; the horses were, however, somewhat
fatigued, having come all the way from the range in one day. Being now
reinforced, I had no longer occasion to mount guard, and for the first
time since the natives had stolen upon me, enjoyed a sound sleep.

September 22.--Moving on the party for ten miles at a course of S. 35
degrees W., we passed through a dreadful country, composed of dense scrub
and heavy sandy ridges, with some salt water channels and beds of small
dry lakes at intervals. In many cases the margins bounding these were
composed of a kind of decomposed lime, very light and loose, which
yielded to the slightest pressure; in this our horses and drays sank
deep, throwing out as they went, clouds of fine white dust on every side
around them. This, added to the very fatiguing and harassing work of
dragging the dray through the thick scrub and over the heavy sand ridges,
almost knocked them up, and we had the sad prospect before us of
encamping at night without a blade of grass for them to eat. Just at this
juncture the native boy who was with me, said he saw rocks in one of the
distant sand hills, but upon examining the place with a telescope I could
not make out distinctly whether they were rocks or only sand. The boy
however persisted that there were rocks, and to settle the point I halted
the dray in camp, whilst I proceeded with him to the spot to look.

At seven miles W. 10 degrees S. of the drays we reached the ridge, and to
my great delight I found the boy was right; he had seen the bare sheets
of granite peeping out near the summit of a sandy elevation, and in these
we found many holes with water in them. At t