Interior of New Holland. 
267 
I thought it prudent to halt here for a day. Our position here 
was in lat. 27° 4' 11* S., and long. 139° 5' 35' E. I felt it 
necessary to halt, not only for the sake of the horses, but to 
examine the country in which a singular change had taken place. 
The lofty sand ridges I have mentioned suddenly terminated on 
an immense stony plain that occupied the whole of the western 
horizon. They jutted into it like head lands into the sea, and 
their bright red summits against the dark surface of the plain 
produced a stormy effect, such as when sand hills near the sea are 
backed by dark clouds. The Stony Desert, as I shall call this 
gloomy region, extended beyond the range of vision from the 
loftiest ridge we ascended. It was of a dark brown hue, the 
stones with which it was covered being coated with oxide of iron. 
In the direction in which we were about to cross it there was not 
a herb nor a tree to be seen, neither was there an object on which 
to take bearings to guide us over it. Far to the eastward there 
were a few trees, but between us and them the desert was herbless. 
How far we should find it to the opposite side we could not guess, 
but the horses evidently required rest before we could venture with 
them unshod over that adamantine plain. During the day the 
men amused themselves rambling about, and Lewis discovered a 
beautiful sheet of water, embosomed in low gum trees, some little 
distance from us. 
On the 27th we commenced our journey over the desert, having 
to trust entirely to our compass bearings—like a ship at sea— 
since the horses left no track behind them. We found the ground 
covered with stones of generally equal size, similar to the paral¬ 
lelograms on the sides of the northern ranges; they had been 
rounded by attrition, and were of the same rock as those moul¬ 
dering hills, and were laid smooth and even on the surface. There 
were but few inequalities, but the whole desert was exceedingly 
depressed. At 30 miles we halted for the night on a patch of 
sand, on which there were a few tufts of grass. At 10 miles, on 
the following morning, we descended some three or four feet only, 
to a belt of polygonum, extending along the edge of the stones, 
and separating the desert from another region of a very different 
character, but apparently of equal extent. This was an earthy 
s 2 
