198 
Captain Sturt’s Expedition into the 
Anxious to take back bearings, I ascended the hills, but only 
partially succeeded in my object, for shower after shower enve¬ 
loped us, as we rose from one hill to another ; yet 1 gazed with 
delight on the war of the elements, believing that it was the 
harbinger of success. At an elevation of 1200 feet, Mr. Browne 
and I found large rounded boulders, such as are on the sea shore, 
protruding from the soil, on the summit of a hill we had just 
ascended. On the 19tli we reached the camp, and on the 2lst 
Mr. Poole left with Mr. Browne, who expressed a desire to go 
out again on this excursion. On the 22nd the weather mode¬ 
rated, and the wind, which had fluctuated between N.W. and 
S.W., flew to the N.E. On the 23rd I struck the tents, to cross 
the ranges with the drays, and on the 29lh encamped with the 
whole party at the Rocky Gully. I hence sent Flood, with two 
men, to dig tanks in the creek in which we had made the well, 
and shortly afterwards followed him, and there determined to 
remain stationary, and await the return of Mr. Poole, to whom 
I had given instructions to proceed to the N.W. as far as lie 
could, and since there was now surface water to enable him to 
pass the point to which I had gone. By this advance I shortened 
Mr. Poole’s homeward journey about 70 miles. On the 2nd of 
December he returned, just as I had begun to be anxious about 
him, for little or no surface water was now to be found. He had 
gained lat. 29° 52', and had terminated his excursion at a chain 
of small lakes connected with each other by narrow sandy 
channels. These lakes were also in shallow sandy basins, and 
contained salt water. About 18 miles to the westward of him 
were three remarkable peaks, and beyond them a lofty and 
broken chain of hills. The water covered the centre of the 
basins, and the chain of lakes appeared to continue to the north. 
Mr. Poole had travelled mostly through the same kind of country 
I have already described, until he got into the neighbourhood of 
these lakes, when it became more open, and just as they de¬ 
scended to the lower ground they stood as it were on the rim of 
a basin, looking down into it, the ground gradually sloping to 
the edge of the lake. Mr. Poole subsisted entirely on the surface 
water left by the recent rains, excepting that near the lake he 
