SALT WATER CHANNEL. 99 
gent salt, with mud and sand and water intermixed 
beneath the upper crust. 
Following the arm downwards I came to a long 
reach of water in its channel, about two feet deep, 
perfectly clear, and as salt as the sea, and I even 
fancied that it had that peculiar green tinge which 
sea-water when shallow usually exhibits. 
This water, however, was not continuous ; a 
little further on, the channel again became dry, 
as it increased in width in its approach to the main 
lake, the bed of which, near its shores, was also 
dry. From a high bank which I ascended, I 
had a full view of the lake stretching away to the 
north-east, as far as the eye could reach, apparently 
about thirty miles broad, and still seeming to be 
bounded on its western shores by a low ridge, or 
table land, beyond which nothing could be seen. 
No hills were visible any where, nor was there the 
least vegetation of any kind. 
I was now upwards of 100 miles away from my 
party in a desert, without grass or water, nor could 
I expect to obtain either until my return to the 
creek, where I had left the twelve gallons, and this was 
about fifty miles away. The main basin of Lake 
Torrens was still four or five miles distant, and I 
could not expect to gain any thing by going down 
to its shores ; as on previous occasions, I had ascer- 
tained that to attempt to cross it, or even to 
reach the water a few miles from its outer edge, was 
quite impossible, from the boggy nature of its bed. 
h 2 
