Page:Expeditions of Discovery in South Australia (IA jstor-1798142).pdf/15

 been along these cliffs I have seen nothing in their appearance to lead me to suppose that any portion of them is composed of chalk. Immediately along their summits, and for a few hundred yards back, very numerous pieces of pure flint are lying loosely scattered upon the surface of the limestone. How they obtained so elevated a position, or whence they are from, may admit, perhaps, of some speculation. Back from the sea, and as far as the eye could reach, the country was level and generally open, with some low prickly bushes and salsolaceous plants growing upon it; here and there patches of the gum scrub showed themselves, among which a few small grassy openings were interspersed. The whole of this tract was thickly covered by small land shells, about the size of snail shells—and some of them somewhat resembling those in shape. There were no sudden depressions or abrupt elevations anywhere; neither hills, trees, nor water, were to be observed; nor was there the least indication of improvement or change in the general character of this desolate and forbidding region. The natives we met with at the head of the Bight were very friendly, and readily afforded us every information we required—as far as we could make them comprehend our wishes.

"We most distinctly understood from them that there was no water along the coast, westerly, for ten days' journeys; and that, inland, there was neither fresh nor salt water, hills or timber, as far as they had ever been; an account which but too well agreed with the opinion I had myself formed, upon ascertaining that the same dreary, barren region I had been traversing so long still continued at a point where I had ever looked forward to some great and important change taking place in the features of the country, and from which I had hoped I might eventually have accomplished the object for which the expedition was fitted out. Such, however, was not the case; there was not any improvement in the appearance of the country, or the least indication that there might be a change for the better, within any practicable distance. I had already examined the tract of country from the longitude of Adelaide to the parallel of almost 130° E. longitude—an extent comprising nearly 8½ degrees of longitude—without my having found a single point from which it was possible to penetrate far into the interior; and I now found myself in circumstances of so embarrassing and hopeless a character, that I have most reluctantly been compelled to give up all further idea of contending with obstacles which there is no reasonable hope of ever overcoming. I have now, therefore, with much regret, completely broken up my small but devoted party. Two of my men returned to Adelaide, in the Waterwitch, five weeks ago.

" Mr. Scott and another of my men proceed on Monday in the Hero; whilst myself, my native boys, and the overseer (who has chosen to accompany me) proceed hence overland to King George's Sound, as soon as our horses are a little recruited by the abundant supply of forage we received by the Hero.

2em "Fowler's Bay, 30th Jan., 1841."