118 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
feet above its bed, plainly marked by large gum-trees lodged in 
tbe forks of the standing trees, and lying kigli up on its banks, 
on one of which I remarked dead leaves still on the branches ; 
and in another creek (Pasmore River), lat. 31° 29', a strong 
current was running at the spot where we struck it (owing, I 
suppose, to recent heavy rains among the hills from whence it 
has its source), but below this point the bed was like that of all 
the other creeks, as dry as if no rain had ever fallen, and with 
occasional patches of various shrubs, and salt water tea-tree 
growing in it. After crossing the low ridge above Prewitt’s 
Springs, lat. 31° 45', forming the left bank of the basin of the 
Siccus, the plain extended between the north and east as far as 
the eye could reach, and the lurid glare of the horizon, as we 
advanced northward, plainly indicated the approach of Lake 
Torrens, which, from the direction I had followed, I expected to 
turn about this point. I was obliged, however, to continue a 
northerly course for the sake of water, which I could only hope 
to find in the ravines of the hills on our left, as high as the 
parallel of 30 o 59', where the lake was visible within fifteen or 
sixteen miles, and appeared from the .high land to be covered 
with water, studded with islands, and backed on the east by a 
bold rocky shore. These appearances were, however, all decep- 
tive, being caused solely by the extraordinary refraction, as on 
riding to the spot the following day, not a drop of water was to 
be seen in any direction. The islands turned out to be mere 
low sandy ridges, very scantily clothed with stunted scrub on 
their summits, and no distant land appeared any where between 
the north and south-east, though from the hills above our camp 
of the previous night, I could discern, with the aid of a very 
powerful telescope, a ridge of low land, either on the eastern 
side of the lake, or rising out of it, distant at least seventy miles, 
rendered visible at that distance by the excessive refractive power 
of the atmosphere on the horizon. A salt crust was seen at in- 
tervals on the surface of the sand at the margin of the lake, or 
as it might more properly be called, the Desert ; but this ap- 
pearance might either be caused by water brought down by the 
