FRUITLESS SEARCH FOR WATER. 
141 
ing down from the range, I followed the dray, and 
as soon as I overtook it, halted for the night in the 
midst of a thick scrub of large tea-trees and minor 
shrubs. There was a little grass scattered among the 
trees, on which, by giving our horses two buckets of 
water each, they were able to feed tolerably well. 
During the day we had travelled over a very heavy 
sandy country and through dense brush, and our 
horses were much jaded. Occasionally we had passed 
small dried up salt lakes and the beds of salt water 
channels ; but even these did not appear to have had 
any water in them for a long time. 
Upon halting the party, I sent Mr. Scott to explore 
the range further south than I had been, whilst I my- 
self went to search among the salt lakes to the south- 
west. We, however, both returned equally unsuc- 
cessful, and I now found that I should be compelled 
to send the dray back for a supply of water from 
Baxter’s range. The country was so scrubby and 
difficult to get a dray through that our progress was 
necessarily slow ; and in the level waste before us I 
had no hope of finding water for some distance 
further. I thought, therefore, that if the dray could 
bring a supply to last us for two days after leaving 
our present encampment, we should then be enabled 
to make a fresh push through a considerable extent 
of bad country, and might have a better chance of 
finding water as we advanced to the south-west. 
September 19. — This morning I unloaded the 
dray of every thing except the water casks, and 
