CHARACTER OF THE COUNTRY. 63 
sen ted sections of 40 and 50 feet perpendicular 
height, in which layers of salt were embedded from 
the very top to the bottom. 
In such a country, what accommodation could I 
expect, or what hopes could I entertain for the future, 
when the very water shed from the clouds would 
not be drinkable after remaining a few hours on 
the ground ? Whichever way I turned myself, to 
the West, to the East, or the North, nothing but diffi- 
culties met my view. 
In one direction was an impracticable lake, 
skirted by heavy and scrubby sand ridges ; in 
another, a desert of bare and barren plains ; and in 
a third, a range of inhospitable rocks. The very 
stones lying upon the hills looked like the scorched 
and withered scoria of a volcanic region ; and even 
the natives, judging from the specimen I had seen 
to-day, partook of the general misery and wretched- 
ness of the place. 
My heart sank within me when I reflected upon 
the gradual but too obvious change that had taken 
place in the character of the country for the worse, 
and when I considered that for some days past 
we had been entirely dependent for our supply of 
water upon the little puddles that had been left on 
the plains by the rain, and which two or three more 
days would completely dry up. Under circum- 
stances so unpropitious, I had many misgivings, 
and the contemplation of our future prospect be- 
came a subject of painful anxiety. 
