86 JOUTINEY or DISCOVERY INTO 



myself to regret the delay of a day thus caused, as the horses were 

 greatly benefited by being in such good quarters. Numerous repairs 

 were again made to our torn saddle-bags, and I was afforded an oppor- 

 tunity of obtaining an extensive round of angles to a numerous assem- 

 blage of distant granite hills which covered the horizon between E. and 

 S.W. The most interesting of these to us was the Eussell Eange, 

 which now for the first time came in sight fifty miles to the eastward, 

 in lofty and rugged outline, cheering us with a far-off prospect of the 

 eastern limit of the country I had been instructed to examine. Al- 

 though so near how^ever, there was no mistaking the nature of the in- 

 tervening country, which was desolate and cheerless in the extreme, 

 presenting no more friendly granite hills at which we could hope to 

 keep our horses alive, and even the misty range itself causing many a 

 doubt in my mind as to the nature of so huge a mass of rock, rising 

 abruptly out of a sea of scrub. The whole northern hoi'izon between 

 this range and Mount Eidley was unbroken by a single hill, to the dis- 

 tance of thirty to forty miles, and was covered with salt lakes and 

 dense scrub on a gradual northerly ascent. Here, on the evening of 

 the 17th, we viewed with peculiar interest from our elevated position 

 of 400 feet above the surrounding plains, a lengthened exhibition of 

 the mysterious southern lights, which, for upwards of an hour, darted 

 or flashed upwards in rapid succession to the height of 20° above the 

 horizon, through a reddish glare, which resembled the loom of an ex- 

 tensive distant conflagration, but was in all probability due to the ex- 

 treme haziness of the atmosphere. 



The huge mass of granite, 200 feet above our camp, which had thus 

 so op2)ortunely afforded a refuge to our favourite horse, having been 

 named after him Mount Ney, we suspended his saddle on a tree, and 

 once more started eastward into the formidable country before us, re- 

 lying on a continuance of that aid and protection which had hitherto 

 been so conspicuously extended towards us. Nor had we overrated 

 the nature of the obstacles which now opposed our progi-ess. At first 

 we were flattered into hope by some relaxation in the density of the 

 scrub ; but as we persevered on our way towards a small granite hill, 

 where I hoped to obtain grass and water, numerous salt lakes again 

 obtruded their unwelcome presence, bound and joined together by 

 thickets so close and densely matted together as frequently to call our 

 axes into requisition before the horses could move on. This belt of 



