COPY OF DESPATCH. 
261 
my first essay I was driven back by the want of water, and 
obliged to abandon one of my horses. This animal I subse- 
quently recovered. 
“In my second attempt, I went, accompanied by one of my 
native boys, and a man driving a dray loaded solely with water and 
our provisions ; but such was the dreadful nature of the country, 
that after penetrating to within twelve miles of the head of the 
Bight, I was again obliged to abandon three of our horses, a 
dray, and our provisions. The poor horses were so exhausted 
by previous fatigue and privation, that they could not return, 
and I was most reluctantly obliged to leave them to obtain relief 
for ourselves, and the two remaining horses we had with us. 
After reaching the nearest water, we made every effort to save 
the unfortunate animals we had left behind ; and for seven days, 
myself, the man, and a boy, were incessantly and laboriously 
engaged almost day and night in carrying water backwards and 
forwards to them — feeding them with bread, gruel, &c. I re- 
gret to say that all our efforts were in vain, and that the expe- 
dition has sustained a fatal and irreparable injury in the loss of 
three of its best draught horses. The dray and the provisions I 
subsequently recovered, and on the evening of the 15th Decem- 
ber, I rejoined my party behind Point Fowler, to prepare des- 
patches for the Waterwitch, since the weak and unserviceable 
condition of nearly the whole of our remaining horses rendered 
any further attempt to penetrate so inhospitable a region quite 
impracticable for the present. In traversing the country along 
the coast from Streaky Bay to the limits of our present explo- 
ration, within twelve miles of the head of the Great Bight, we 
have found the country of a very uniform description— low flat 
lands, or a succession of sandy ridges, densely covered with a 
brush of eucalyptus dumosa , salt water tea-tree, and other 
shrubs — whilst here and there appear a few isolated patches of 
open grassy plains, scattered at intervals among the scrub. The 
surface rock is invariably an oolitic limestone, mixed with an 
imperfect freestone, and in some places exhibits fossil banks, 
which bear evident marks of being of a very recent formation. 
