Page:Expeditions of Discovery in South Australia (IA jstor-1798142).pdf/5

 this creek we travelled about 12 miles further N. to a high dark looking range, standing by itself, and running in a direction nearly at right angles to the main tier, and as its elevation was considerable, I ascended in hopes of viewing a more cheering prospect. The range was of granite, and from its summit I could see to an immense distance. To the north the ranges rose in lofty broken outline, tier behind tier, of very barren rocky appearance, as far as the eye could reach; to the eastward our view was interrupted by the hills we were travelling under; to the west of these hills the country had gradually changed to a complete sandy desert, interspersed with scrub; further W. and S.W. was seen a low range, flat at the top, and gradually declining to the level of and merging into the sandy country before us; whilst to the N.W., and extending to the N. as far as the eye could reach, was to be seen a very broad glittering stripe of what seemed to be water, but which I am inclined to think was not water, but only the dry and glazed bed of where water had lodged—and of very great extent. Nowhere could we see the least sign of grass or water; the hills before me were high, barren and rocky, and there were no gum trees or other indications of water emanating from them to be seen any where—the whole was barren and arid-looking in the extreme, and as I gazed on the dismal scene before me I felt assured I had approached the vast and dreary desert of the interior, or, it might be, was verging on the confines of some inland water, whose sterile and desolate shores seem to forbid the traveller's approach. Anxious as I was to ascertain the nature of the country before me, I was at one glance convinced that in so unfavourable a season I could not hope to penetrate further. We were already 36 miles from our depôt without finding a place where the horses could water—we had not seen a blade of grass—and the extensive and distant view before us forbade us to hope for either to the northward; we were therefore reluctantly compelled to retrace our steps to the depot, which we had some difficulty in reaching with our horses, as they were greatly reduced for want of food. Foiled as I was in the first and most important object I had in view, I am still of opinion that the lofty masses of ranges I saw so far away to the northward may, in a more favourable season, afford the means, and I think I may venture to say, the only means, of penetrating far into the interior.

"On rejoining my party at the dep6t, I found my overseer just returning from the S.W., in which direction I had sent him, to a high and distant range I had seen from the heights behind the dep6t. He reported that he had been out 50 miles to the S.W., to a high, barren, rocky range, from the summit of which he could see another high range, similar in appearance to the one he was upon; and the intervening country, like that he had traversed, was open, level and barren, with the bed of a dried up lake about 10 miles beyond the range he was upon, but neither watercourse nor tree of any kind was to be seen, and during his whole journey he had not seen a blade of grass anywhere, or a drop of water; and the miserable condition of the horse he had brought back fully proved the wretched state of the country he had been examining.

"As our riding horses were nearly all knocked up, and the nature of the country so dry and barren, I saw no hopes of succeeding in the second object I had in view, that of opening a line of road to Port Lincoln,