76 THIRSTY FLAT. 



rolling with restless anxiety from side to side, and 

 sometimes in absolute despair, starting up on his 

 feet : neither could I fail to note the wearying effect 

 these broken slumbers produced, symptoms of which 

 shewed themselves more plainly each morning. 



Having provided myself with the means of calcu- 

 lating the latitude, I worked the observations I had 

 taken during the night. It placed the spot of our 

 bivouac in 15° ^9' S. We estimated our distance 

 from the boats, having carefully timed ourselves each 

 march, at 23 miles ; 10 in an east, general direction, 

 and 13 N. E. by N. 



November 10. — We pushed onwards in the cool of 

 the morning, taking a S. 20° W. direction, for three 

 miles, crossing the eastern part of the flat to which 

 we yesterday gave the name of Thirsty Flat, and 

 found the soil a lijjht mould, covered with lono^ drv 

 grass. This brought us to a bend in the river, 

 trending in rather a tortuous manner east, and pass- 

 ing through a wide valley, with table ranges, varying 

 from 5 to 600 feet on either side. Towards their sum- 

 mits there w^ere perpendicular cliff's of some 30 or 40 

 feet, similar to the hioh land of Sea Rancje. The 

 country just here was so thickly wooded that I was 

 obliged to climb a tree in order to get the bearings. 

 We noticed some very curious black horizontal 

 streaks on the hills in our immediate vicinity. We 

 crossed the river, or rather over its bed — a patch of 

 stones — and found some shells of the water-tortoise 

 at the remains of a native fire on the bank : we 



