Miscellanea . 
433 
the waves of a tempestuous sea. There was, at the first, a little 
grass on the flats, but at length they became sandy, and the 
ridges less elevated. It appeared, indeed, that the ridges had 
been levelled by successive gales of wind, and had filled up the 
hollows. The whole region was now sand, on which spurifex 
alone was growing, if I except a few stunted hakea bushes that 
were scattered about; so that if I had not brought a few oats 
with me for the horse, he would have starved. On the 13tli, at 
noon, my observations and reckoning placed me in latitude 
28° IT 15" and at this point my horse failed. I therefore took 
him out of the cart, and with Joseph walked to a distance of from 
twelve to thirteen miles, as I wished, if possible, to pass the 28th 
meridian. I was then nearly abreast of Moreton Bay in point of 
latitude, more than two hundred miles to the westward of the 
Darling, and in longitude 141° 22', as near as I could judge; 
and yet, as I looked around me from the top of a small sand-hill 
I had ascended, I could see no change in the terrible desert into 
which I had penetrated. The horizon was unbroken by a single 
mound, from north round to north again, and it was as level as that 
of the ocean. My view to the north extended about eight miles; 
but I did not venture to compass that distance, only perhaps to 
have overlooked a similar heart-rending and desolate scene. I 
turned my back, therefore, upon it, and returned to the cart, and 
the next day pushed on for the water holes, which I reached on 
the 16th, at sunset, with great difficulty. On coming to this 
water-hole, I had kept to the left of my former line across the 
ranges, and I had observed that a creek, which I had been led to 
believe exhausted itself in the plains to the eastward, did not 
really do so, but continued, with some promise, to the westward. 
This creek I desired Flood to examine during my absence, and 
he now informed me that he thought it worthy my further 
scrutiny; I therefore left Joseph with the cart, and, taking Mr. 
Stuart and Flood with me, rode down the creek the first day, to 
a distance of thirty miles, when we arrived at two large water- 
holes—at which a number of natives had been only a day or two 
before—in which but little water now remained; and at these we 
stopped and slept. The next morning, in tracing the creek 
