COPY OF DESPATCH. 
177 
the water. Throughout this level tract of country were inter- 
spersed, in various directions, many small flat-topped elevations, 
varying in height from 50 to 300 feet, and almost invariably ex ' 
hibiting precipitous banks. These elevations are composed 
almost wholly of a chalky substance, coated over on the upper 
surface by stones, or a sandy soil, and present the appearance 
of having formed a table land that has been washed to pieces 
by the violent action of water, and of which these fragments now 
only remain. Upon forcing a way through this dreary region, 
in three different directions, I found that the whole of the low 
country round the termination of Flinders range, was com- 
pletely surrounded by Lake Torrens, which, commencing not 
far from the head of Spencer's Gulf, takes a circuitous course of 
fully 400 miles, of an apparent breadth of from twenty to thirty 
miles, following the sweep of Flinders range, and almost 
encircling it in the form of a horse shoe. 
“The greater part of the vast area contained in the bed of this 
immense lake, is certainly dry on the surface, and consists of a 
mixture of sand and mud, of so soft and yielding a character, 
as to render perfectly ineffective all attempts either to cross it, 
or reach the edge of the water, which appears to exist at a dis- 
tance of some miles from the outer margin. On one occasion 
only was I able to taste of its waters ; in a small arm of the 
lake near the most north-westerly part of it, which I visited, 
and here the water was as salt as the sea. The lake on its 
eastern and southern sides, is bounded by a high sandy ridge, 
with salsolse and some brushwood growing upon it, but without 
any other vegetation. The other shores presented, as far as I 
could judge, a very similar appearance ; and when I ascended 
several of the heights in Flinders range — from which the views 
were very extensive, and the opposite shores of the lake seemed 
to be distinctly visible — no rise or hill of any kind could ever be 
perceived, either to the west, the north, or the east ; the whole 
region around appeared to be one vast, low, and dreary waste. 
One very high and prominent summit in this range, I have 
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