CH. v.] HILLS BEYOND THE DARLING. 243 



over a softlbed of naked earth, across which, at one place, a 

 well-beaten road of the natives led to the valley on the south, 

 and to some water-course, if not to water itself. After 10| 

 miles of weary travelling, we encamped on a bend of the Dar- 

 ling, in latitude 31° 31^ 20" S. 



The soil of the plains being extremely soft, uneven, and full 

 of holes, the cattle were, at length, almost unable to get 

 through their allotted journies ; I, therefore, determined to 

 let them rest during the three following days, while I pro- 

 ceeded to the hills beyond the Darling, in a west-north-west 

 direction neai'ly, and distant from our camp 11§ miles. 



June 26. — I forded the Darling, where the bottom was a 

 hard clay ; and I proceeded in a direction bearing 27° north 

 of west, to the hill. Thei'e was much less of the soft soil on 

 this bank, and at a mile from the ford, we travelled on very- 

 firm clay, quite clear of vegetation, white, shining, and level 

 as ice. At about seven miles from the river, Ave reached the 

 first rise of firm red earth. The vegetation upon it, consisted 

 of the two species of atriplex so very common on that soil, and 

 more of the salsolae, than I had before seen. This rise seemed 

 to mark the extent of the bed of clay, through which the 

 Darling flows, at least as far as we had hitherto traced it. 

 The country was open to about three miles from the summit, 

 where we passed through a scrub of stunted casuarinae, 

 interspersed with a few of the acacia with spotted bark. 

 Here we crossed some beds of conglomerate, consisting of 

 grains and pebbles of quartz, cemented by a hard ferruginous 

 matrix, probably decomposed felspar ; and we saw soon after 

 a few blocks of the same hard sandstone, which occurs at 

 Dunlop's range, and other high points. The summit, con- 

 sisting of the same rock, was very broad, and strewed with 

 small stones, and partly covered with a dwarf acacia bush, 

 which gave an uniform tinge, like heath, to the whole coun- 

 try, as far as my view extended to the westward. The 

 horizon to the west and south-west, was finely broken by 

 hills resembling Oxley's Table-land and D'Urban's group, 

 but the day was hazy, and I looked in vain for any indication 



u 2 



