June.] SINGULAR VALLEY AND PLAIN. 
37 
the intervening space, barely leaving room for 
the passage of the waggons. A serpentine brook 
gently glided along the middle of the valley, 
which was often concealed by the tall bushes 
growing in its vicinity. Along its northern side 
extended a small footpath, made by the wild 
beasts of the desert, few human beings having 
probably ever travelled that way. At noon we 
cleared the pass, and reached the summit of a 
hill, to which we had gradually ascended from 
the valley. Instead, however, of a descent on 
the other side, nothing but a plain, bounded 
only by the horizon, appeared to the westward. 
From this eminence there was an interesting 
view to the eastward of the Malapeetzee moun- 
tains, and also to the S.E. of the country lying 
beyond the Malalareen, the chief resort of the 
emigrant game from the north. 
From this summit we launched forth into an un- '. 
known wilderness, but not without some degree 
of anxiety respecting the result. The first indica- 
tions did not appear very propitious, the ground 
being completely paved with rough yet flat whin- 
stones, which severely tried the strength of our 
waggons, and had the weather not been moist, so 
as to have swelled the timbers, they might have 
been dashed into a thousand pieces. In some 
parts, however, of our course the surface was - 
level, like the side pavements in a city, adjusted 
