196 Captain Sturt's Expedition into the 
imprisonment and as severe a trial as it ever fell to the lot of man 
to bear. At the base of the ranges we turned to the north for 
the mouth of the gulley, down which we had been unable to 
proceed, and there finding water, stopped for the night. The 
direction of the ranges was due north and south, and as we 
regarded them from the plains, they looked like a dark wall 
stretched across the land. The outlines of the hills were generally 
rounded ; there were no cones, nor were the hills themselves of 
very great elevation ; still they seemed to extend to a great 
distance northward, and distant hill tops were visible to the 
north-east. From the Rocky Gulley we continued our journey 
on a bearing of 342°, and thus gradually increased our distance 
from the hills. We traversed stony plains, but thinly covered 
with salsolaceous plants; and, about sunset, descended to softer 
ground, and made for a line of gum trees, under which we found 
the dry and gravelly bed of a creek. The indications of water, how¬ 
ever, were sufficient to induce us to dig for it, when we got a fair 
supply, both for ourselves and our horses, and laid down, well 
satisfied with the result of our day’s journey. On the following 
morning, we again proceeded on our former bearing, and were 
glad to find the precincts of the creek were both grassy and open. 
Appearances, indeed, justified our anticipations of improvement; 
but these were soon destroyed, for, soon afterwaids, we entered 
a low scrub, on breaking through which, we had to cross low 
ridges of sand, crowned with pine trees. These ridges were 
running nearly north-east and south-west, and were separated by 
narrow flats of red clay with bare patches on them. Neither on 
these, nor on the sandy ridges, however, was there any deficiency 
of grass; on the contrary, although thin, it was of luxuriant 
growth; and we looked momentarily for water, from the fact of 
there being so many birds in the bushes; we terminated our 
journey, however, without finding any, and tethering the horses, 
took up our station on one of the ridges for the night. The 
country continued the same in character for about twenty miles 
beyond this point—an abundance of green grass covering the 
lower part of the sand hills and portions of the flats, but no water 
was to be found. At the distance of twenty-five miles, I stopped 
