Page:Tracks of McKinlay and party across Australia.djvu/39

 thus to cover the surface of the country around with small flint stones.

The supply of water seemed to be precarious in both of these regions, but especially in the second. The season of 1861-2, that in which the expedition started, had evidently enjoyed a better rain fall than the following season, when the party returned. All along the route, as far into the tropics as even Newcastle Water, the ponds, creeks, and rivers were found greatly reduced in their contents on the party's return, as compared with the supply they presented on the outward journey, and this, too, notwithstanding that the summer was less advanced when the expedition re-passed homewards. Even the Bonney, in latitude 20° 24', a fine running river as seen in March, was by September following dried up into a few long shallow water holes. The Hamilton, with its long deep ponds, was all but dried up on the return, with many dead fish floating on the diminished surface, while the water of the Lindsay stood six feet lower in level. There was no water in the bed of the Upper Neales, and as the tracks of the previous year's expedition were still visible, there would seem to have been no rain in that part since that expedition passed. Most of the water courses, in fact, had the appearance of not having had water in them for many years. All these indications tend to show that there are no general rains