TABLE-TOPPED ELEVATIONS. 95 
the plains or on the hills there was not a blade of 
of anything green ; at night we encamped upon a 
small dry channel with tolerable feed, but no water, 
and we again gave each horse three gallons from 
our kegs. 
The country we were traversing as yet under- 
went no alteration, the only difference being, that the 
hills were getting lower and the watercourses less 
numerous, and both apparently without water ; the 
sand ridges came more in among the hills, and the 
dry beds of small salt lakes were often met with ; 
the salsolse were more abundant, but the traces of 
natives were now less frequent ; whilst those we fell 
in with seemed for the most part to have been left 
during the wet season. The rock formation still con- 
tinued the same, quartz, ironstone, slate, and grey 
limestone, with saline crusts peeping above the 
ground in many places in the lower levels ; the sky 
was cloudy and threatened rain, but none fell : our 
stage was 18 miles. 
August 13. — Continuing our course to the N. W. 
I took on the cart for 13 miles to a large dry chan- 
nel, coming from the hills, upon which we halted for 
an hour or two to rest and feed the horses, as there 
were some sprinklings of grass around. We had 
now a change in the appearance of the country ; the 
ironstone ranges seemed to decrease rapidly in eleva- 
tion to the north, and the region around appeared 
more level, with many very singular looking table- 
topped elevations from 50 to 300 feet in height and 
