to Baxter’s range. 
201 
we passed a salt lake on our right, and several salt 
ponds on our left ; but we could find no permanent 
fresh water anywhere. In the rocks of the range 
we had encamped under, we procured a small quan- 
tity left by the rains, but this supply was rapidly 
disappearing under the rays of a very hot sun, and 
had we been a few days later, we could not have 
crossed at all. The latitude of our camp was 
32° 41' 40" S. 
September 22. — This morning I ascended one of the 
heights in the Gawler range, from which the view is 
extensive to the southward, over a generally low level 
country, with occasional elevations at intervals ; to the 
north the view is obstructed by the Gawler range, 
consisting apparently of a succession of detached 
ridges high and rocky, and entirely of a porphoritic 
granite lying in huge bare masses upon the surface. 
The hills # were without either timber or shrubs, and 
very barren, with their front slopes exceedingly 
steep, and covered by small loose stones ; several 
salt lakes w r ere seen in various directions, but no 
indications of fresh water or springs. 
It was late before the party moved on to-day, but 
* Peron’s description of the mountains on the South-western 
coast, is singularly applicable to the Gawler range — He says, 
Tom. III. p. 233. “ Sur ces montagnes pelees onnevoit pasun 
arbre, pas un arbriseau, pas un arbuste ; rien, en un mot, qui 
puisse faire soup 9 onner l’existence de queque terre vegetale. 
La durete du roc paroit braver ici tous les efforts de la nature, et 
resister a ces memes moyens de decomposition qu’ elle emploie 
ailleurs avec tant de succ&s.” 
