REFLECTIONS. 
25 
from the result, and to make too little allowance 
for difficulties and impediments, of the magnitude 
of which from circumstances they could be but 
incompetent judges. 
With such thoughts as these, and revolving in my 
mind our future plans, our chances of success or 
otherwise, it will not be deemed surprising, that 
notwithstanding the fatigue and care I had gone 
through during the last fortnight of preparation, 
sleep should long remain a stranger to my pillow ; 
and when all nature around me was buried in deep 
repose I alone was waking and anxious. 
From former experience in a personal examination 
of the nature of the country north of the head of 
Spencer’s Gulf, during the months of May and 
June, 1839, I had learnt that the farther the advance 
to the north, the more dreary and desolate the ap- 
pearance of the country became, and the greater was 
the difficulty, both of finding and of obtaining ac- 
cess to either water or grass. The interception of 
the singular basin of Lake Torrens, which I had 
discovered formed a barrier to the westward, and 
commencing near the head of Spencer’s Gulf, was 
connected with it by a narrow channel of mud and 
water. This lake apparently increased in width as 
it stretched away to the northward, as far as the 
eye could reach, when viewed from the farthest point 
attained by me in 1839, named by Colonel Gawler, 
Mount Eyre. Dreary as had been the view I then 
obtained, and cheerless as was the prospect from 
