162 THE SWAN RIVER DISTRICT 



He told me his run extended forty miles on each side, and 

 that he and his chums had dug innumerable wells on this 

 area as the only means of providing the cattle with water. 

 Directions for finding some of these wells he kindly gave 

 me, assuring me at the same time, that there was no 

 surface water for a hundred miles in the direction I 

 purposed travelling, and that I should certainly be 

 compelled to turn back. Beyond the distance mentioned 

 he did not know the country. His information was of 

 some value to us, and induced me to alter my course 

 more to the northward to avoid some arid tracts he 

 described. 



There was no change in the character of the country 

 travelled over on the 25th. At four o'clock in the after- 

 noon we halted, and attempted to obtain water by digging. 

 In this we failed, and the horses consequently had to go 

 without it, the men having only what they carried in their 

 water-bottles. 



We started very early the next morning and rode fast, 

 the search for water being an immediate necessity. By 

 ten o'clock I conjectured that we had ridden at least forty 

 miles over a sandy, spinifex-covered plain, with gum-trees 

 scattered over it at almost regular intervals. Some hills 

 to our left were dotted thickly with bushes, growing singly, 

 not in clusters. This singularity in the disposal of bushes 

 and trees I have noticed in an earlier chapter. For a 

 distance of two hundred miles in this country we found 

 the ground occupied with scattered bushes and trees, never 

 growing in woods, groves, or even clusters, but sometimes 

 half a mile apart, and sometimes only a score of yards. 

 Many of the trees were leafless, and their black branches 

 had a most weird and forlorn appearance. 



Soon after ten o'clock we sighted a lake, the bright 

 whiteness of the surface of which announced at once that 

 it was a sheet of apparently pure salt. Near its margin 

 we found water five feet below the surface of the ground, 

 but it was too salt to be drunk. A few miles further on 

 was a wet lake or swamp, the water of which was bitter as 

 well as peculiarly briny. We accordingly rode as fast as 



