250 
Captain Sturt's Expedition into the 
about a quarter of a mile in length. There was not much 
grass in the immediate neighbourhood of the camp, but there 
was an abundance of feed lower down the creek, and amongst 
the slaty hills to the westward of us. The Depot Camp, in lat. 
29° 40' 14" S., and long. 141° 30' E., was established on the 
27th January, and the tents were not again struck until the 14th 
of July following, making a detention of 161 days, M/e had 
little idea, however, when we sat down in that lonely wilderness, 
that we were to suffer so severe a trial. Had we been so, few of 
us, perhaps, would have had strength of mind to have sustained 
it. Mr. Poole, however, had not over-estimated the value of the 
spot to us. There was an abundant supply of water in the Glen, 
sheltered from the rays of the sun by high rocks, even supposing 
the pool at which we were encamped had run dry ; but, although 
not 40 feet broad, it was 17J feet deep, and about a quarter ot a 
mile in length. Besides this, there was a lagoon, at which the 
cattle watered, but it was shallow, and was soon exhausted. The 
sources of this, to us, important creek, were to the westward of 
us, on large and open plains, that were elevated considerably above 
the desert country beyond them. In its progress to the eastward, 
it passed through a defile in the Slaty Range close to us, and at 
about a mile below the camp, joined a much larger creek from 
the north, on the dry character of which I have already remarked. 
Independently, however, of the Slaty Range through which the 
Dep6t Creek passed, we had many hills in view. Of these, the 
Red Hill, afterwards called Mount Poole, on which I erected 
a pyramid of stones, and which bore 328° from the camp, distant 
four miles; and the Black Hill, were the most remarkable. The 
rock formation of the Black Hill was horn-slate, resting on a 
siliceous rock, common to the slate formation. Mount Poole 
rested on sandstone, the rock itself being a whiter stone, 
aluminous. The plains were generally bare or covered with 
salsolee and atriplex, there being glass in the hollows of water¬ 
courses or on the sides of creeks only. The course of the creek 
was defined by gum trees, and low shrubs of acacia and other* * 
were scattered over the ground. Not only in the creek, where 
the trunks of trees were lodged high in the branches of the tree*ijj| 
