126 
ASCEND MOUNT DISTANCE. 
ground itself, formerly so hard, was soft and boggy 
in the extreme, rendering progress much slower and 
more fatiguing to the horses than it otherwise would 
have been. By steadily persevering we made a stage 
of thirty-five miles, but were obliged to encamp at 
night some miles short of the little height I had 
been steering for. 
During our ride we passed several dry water- 
courses at five, ten, twenty-five, thirty, and thirty- 
five miles from our last encampment. The last we 
halted upon with good feed for the horses, and rain- 
water lodged everywhere. All these watercourses 
took their course to the north, emptying and losing 
themselves in the plains. In the evening heavy 
showers again fell, and the night set in very dark. 
September 2.— After travelling seven miles we 
ascended Mount Distance, and from it I could see 
that the hills now boreS. and S.E. and were getting 
much lower, so that we were rapidly rounding their 
northern extremity. To the north and north-east were 
seen only broken fragments of table lands, similar to 
what I found near the lake to the north-west ; the 
lake itself, however, was nowhere visible, and I saw 
that I should have another day's hard riding before 
I could satisfactorily determine its direction. Upon 
descending I steered for a distant low haycock -like 
peak in the midst of one of the table- topped frag- 
ments ; from this rise I expected the view would be 
decisive, and I named it Mount Hopeless. — From 
Mount Distance it bore E. 25° N. 
