Interior of New Holland. 
265 
such features, was matter of infinite surprise to me. They 
occurred at intervals of 10 or 20 miles apart, the intervening 
country being open plains, with occasional sandy ridges ; and, 
looking at them from any height, they appeared to be a succes¬ 
sion of shallow basins, occasionally filled with water. The soil 
of these plains was partly alluvial, like the soil of the Darling 
flats, and there was a mixture of productions upon them. 
Had the country continued as we thus found it, we should 
have had but few difficulties to struggle with; but, even here, 
where water was for the time abundant, we had frequent oppor¬ 
tunities of seeing the natives greatly distressed for the want of 
that life-sustaining element. The last creek we struck had several 
pools of water in it, but they were so thick and muddy that we 
passed them, and at length came to a deep pond of clear green 
water, that at once convinced us it was brackish, and so we found 
it, but not disagreeably so; so we stopped at it for the night; 
and Mr. Browne, arming himself with a pin-hook and line, caught 
some silver perch of no great size, but very acceptable to us. Yet 
it was matter of surprise how these fish could have got into so 
isolated a position ; none of the other ponds contained anything 
but tadpoles and animalculae. This, however, was a mystery that 
was subsequently revealed. Immediately below the pond, the 
channel of the creek was lost on an extensive polygonum flat. 
We crossed it however, and, at a mile, ascended a confused mass 
of sand hills and clay, from which we descended to a country black 
with samphire and salsolaceous plants, in the midst of which, and 
directly in our course, was the white and glittering bed of a dry 
salt lagoon. Crossing this, and entering a low barren scrub, we 
passed under a belt of gum trees, and suddenly found ourselves 
on the outskirts of extensive grassy plains, similar to those on 
which I had established the depdt, and owing their existence I 
should think, most probably as it did, to the overflow of the last 
creek we had passed. Striking across these plains, which had a 
belt of trees round them, backed by sand ridges, we surprised some 
native women gathering seed, and had a long parley with them. 
Asking them where we should find water, they pointed in the 
opposite direction to that in which I wished to go, and showed 
vol. iii. no. iv. 
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