66 DISTRESS FOR WAKT OF WATER. [CH. III. 



Unabraded fragments of trap are not uncommon in the soil 

 of these plains, and I imagined there was a want of sym- 

 metry in the hollows and slopes, as compared with features 

 more closely connected with hills elsewhere. At 85 miles, 

 perceiving boundless plains to the northward, I changed 

 the direction of our route 24° east of north. The plains 

 extended westward to the horizon, and opened to our view 

 an extensive prospect towards the north-east, into the coun- 

 try north of the range of Nundawar, a region apparently 

 champaign, but including a few isolated and picturesque 

 hills. Patches of wood were scattered over the level 

 parts, and we hastened towards a land of such promising 

 aspect. Water, however, was the great object of our search, 

 but I had no doubt, that I should find enough in a long 

 valley before us, which descended from the range on the 

 east. In this I was, nevertheless, mistaken ; for although 

 the valley was well escarped, it did not contain even the trace 

 of a water-course. Crossing the ridge beyond it, to a valley 

 still deeper, which extended under a ridge of very remark- 

 able hills, we met with no better success ; nor yet when we 

 had followed the valley to its union with another, under a 

 hill which I named Mount Frazer, after the botanist of that 

 name. No other prospect of relief, from this most distressing 

 of all privations remained to us, and the day was one of 

 extraordinary heat, for the thermometer, which had never 

 before been above 101° on this journey, now stood at 108° in 

 the shade. The party had travelled sixteen miles, and the 

 cattle could not be driven further, with any better prospect 

 of finding water. We, therefore, encamped in this valley, 

 while I explored it upwards, but found all dry and desolate. 

 Mr. White returned late, after a most laborious but equally 

 fruitless search northward, and we consequently ])assed a 

 most disagreeable afternoon. Unable to cat, the cattle lay 

 groaning, and the men extended on their backs watched 

 some heavy thunder-clouds which at length stretched over 



