LEAVE THE PARTY. 
55 
wished Mr. Scott good bye, I set off on horseback 
with the eldest of my native boys, taking a pack 
horse to carry our provisions, and some oats for the 
horses. After rounding a projecting corner of the 
range we passed Mount Arden, still traversing open 
plains of great extent, and very stony. In some of 
these plains we found large puddles of water much 
discoloured by the soil, so that it was evident there 
had been heavy rains in this direction, though we 
had none to the southward. 
After travelling twenty-four miles we came to a 
large watercourse winding from Flinders range 
through the plains, with its direction distinctly 
marked out by the numerous gum-trees upon its 
banks. This was the “ salt watercourse” of my former 
journeys so called from the large reaches of salt 
water in its bed a mile or two among the hills. By 
digging in the gravelly bed of the channel, where 
the natives had scooped a small hole, we got some 
tolerable water, and were enabled to give as much 
as they required to our horses, but it was a slow and 
tedious operation. We could get very little out at 
once, and had to give it to them to drink in the 
black boy’s duck frock, which answered the purpose 
of a bucket amazingly well. 
There was not a blade of grass, or anything that 
the horses could eat near this creek, so I was obliged 
to tie them up for the night, after giving to each a 
feed of oats. 
July 7 . — Towards morning several showers of rain 
