Page:Tracks of McKinlay and party across Australia.djvu/50

 give them tomahawks and other good things. They were impatient for these promised presents, and when Howitt and his party approached they informed King, and went themselves readily to meet the party.

The records of this important journey are scanty and imperfect, but sufficient to guide us as to the character of central Australia, in the particular direction that was taken. Burke passed through some good and grassy country north of the Cooper, and before entering "the Desert." From the Desert to the tropic was generally stony and poor, but from the tropic to the Gulf there was a large proportion of richly grassed and well watered land, interspersed with hill ranges. In the dry central region, the party noticed in repeated instances that there were marks of flooding along the banks of creeks, and over parts of the country they passed through, although at the time of their visit everything was burnt up. Their experiences of the Desert were of a less inhospitable kind than those of Sturt. A week after leaving the Cooper they are within its limits, and they thus describe it:—

"'Sunday, Dec. 23rd.—At 5 we struck out across the Desert in a west-north-west direction&hellip; We found the ground not nearly so bad for travelling on as that between Balloo and Cooper's Creek; in fact I do not know whether it arose from our exaggerated anticipation of horrors or not, but we thought it for from bad travelling ground, and as to"