Interior of New Holland. 
253 
and to our horses as we walked through it. I was at length 
obliged to abandon the horse, and after tethering him to a bush, 
for there were no trees, round which there were a few tufts of 
grass, I started with Joseph to walk as far as we could, or until 
I judged that we had, at all events, crossed the 28° parallel. 
Standing on the raised point of a sandy ridge our view was still 
limited, nor was there any apparent change of country at hand. 
The view was as disheartening and as barren as can be imagined. 
Sand was the universal soil, spinifex the almost unbroken covering 
of the land, excepting that here and there a weakly melaleuca 
spread out its branches. I found myself obliged to turn back as 
little satisfied as with my former excursion, and in great doubts 
whether I should ever get my poor horse back to the water hole: 
fearful, too, that the water might all have evaporated, I was still 
obliged to limit him, as 1 knew it would be out of his power to 
gain the water in the hills if we were improvident. Happily we 
got to our destination without any accident, and managed to bale 
up enough for poor Rodney; but neither was Mr. Stuart nor Flood 
at the place. When we resumed our journey on the following 
morning we observed the mud we left fast settling into a 
consistency. 
As we rode over the hills this second time, we observed some 
gum trees to our left, which had escaped my notice and that of 
Mr. Browne when we passed the same way. I desired Mr. Stuart 
and Flood to go up to them during my absence, as they 
were always a happy omen. Not finding either of them at the 
place at which we separated, I knew they must have found water 
somewhere else, and I accordingly struck away for the trees, and 
there found them anxiously awaiting our return, and very com¬ 
fortably established by a waterhole, that, although diminished and 
indeed almost exhausted, must not very long before have been 
deep. The water, though muddy, was good, and here, on the 
following day—Sunday, 16th—I gave myself a day of rest. The 
water-hole on which we now depended, was in the bed of the 
creek, which I had thought spread over the flats to the eastward ; 
but on a closer examination, Mr. Stuart found that it picked up 
again, and ran to the westward. It had attained a tolerable 
