Miscellanea . 
431 
the party to it during my absence ; but, as we were not so for¬ 
tunate, I directed him, on his return home, to examine a creek a 
little to the westward of our line, when he was gradually drawn to 
this creek, on which we have found a secure and undisturbed 
asylum since the 27th of January last. In the mean time, I 
crossed a remarkable group of hills, which proved to be the ter¬ 
minating group to the north, although they extended in broken 
and irregular masses to the eastward. From a small peak in 
this group, we saw two small hills, on a bearing of 316° distant 
from forty to forty five miles, I therefore descended again to the 
plains, and hoping to obtain a good view of the interior from their 
summit, I made at once for them. At about six miles from the 
hills, we entered a scrub; and at seven miles, found a supply of 
water in a small creek, but none afterwards. Soon after entering 
the scrub, we got into a country, alternating, as before, with long 
narrow flats, and sandy ridges; but they were here destitute of 
cypresses ; and this kind of country continued to the hills, which 
we reached at sunset. 
We could see nothing from their most elevated point but a 
universal scrub. From the S.W. to the N.E., the horizon was 
unbroken, and the view direct to the north was over as gloomy 
and as forbidding a region as man ever gazed upon. Both on 
our way to these hills, and on our return from them, we expe¬ 
rienced the most oppressive heat among the ridges of sand. The 
wind blew in our faces with the constancy and intensity of a 
hot blast from a furnace, insomuch that we had a difficulty in 
breathing so rarified an atmosphere. On the 20tli, we returned 
to the ranges, and thence to the camp, where, to my utter as¬ 
tonishment, I found the water I had left in the tanks entirely 
evaporated, and Mr. Poole drawing his supplies from a well; but 
the fortunate discovery he had made on his way home enabled 
me at once to move the party to a place of permanent security; 
for our consumption of water at this time was at the rate of from 
a thousand to eleven hundred gallons a day, with the thermo¬ 
meter in a mean of 107° at two p.m. in the shade. I had, up 
to this period, had to look as well to our retreat as to our ad¬ 
vance, and to provide for both; but I was now enabled to cast 
