Page:Tracks of McKinlay and party across Australia.djvu/31

 nothing daunted, the year 1862 sees him for the third time traversing what had become to him a familiar road. The impenetrable scrub once more opposes. It is tried here and tried there, and long in vain for a practicable passage. This search embraces a detour of sixty miles to the westward in hopes of a more open country in that direction, by which he might accomplish one great object of his journeys, namely, a practicable passage from South Australia to the river Victoria, of the north-west. In this particular object he was defeated, but he did at length find a passage northwards through the forest barrier, and continued his march in that direction. He had in this last stage entered upon the finest and most interesting country of the journey. Amidst plains covered with luxuriant grass, which sometimes rose above the heads of the party, amidst picturesque diversities of hill and dale, woodland and river scene, where a profuse tropical vegetation showed generally the rich character of the soil, Stuart pursued his way until he emerged upon the Indian Sea.

He did actually emerge upon the northern ocean, and in having thus seen its waters and trodden its shore, he was more fortunate than his competitors. They had only witnessed its tides near the mouth of one of the northern rivers, and tasted its salt waters. The low, swampy surface at the head of the Carpentarian Gulf had,