Interior of New Holland. 
355 
it, the brunt of this fell on Mr. Browne; nor is it to be supposed 
that he exerted himself as he did with impunity. He reached the 
Darling worn out with fatigue, but unbroken in spirit, and no man 
better deserved the rest that awaited him on his reaching the 
Darling than did he. To Mr. Stuart, who succeeded Mr. Poole, 
I am also greatly indebted for his zeal and attention on all occa¬ 
sions. He, like myself, suffered severely; but he was ever ready 
to be of use. 
It may not be necessary for me to weary the reader by any 
account of our progress down the Darling homeward. I urged 
Mr. Browne to leave me at Laidley’s Ponds as I was then better 
in health, but he would not so long as he thought I might require 
his assistance. He left me two days before we reached Lake 
Victoria. We parted as those should part who have mutually 
assisted each other iu difficulty and danger, and I trust and believe 
that the friendship we contracted in the desert will only terminate 
with our lives. 
It only remains for me to make a few observations on the results 
of this expedition, the details of which have hitherto been almost 
personal. Such observations appear to me to be the more neces¬ 
sary, because the position of a recent traveller, in reference to 
the line I took, seems to me to be understood by very few. It 
would, however, have been a difficult task for me to have conveyed 
my own impressions to the reader, if I could not have been assisted 
by the accompanying diagram, in which the relative positions of 
myself and the Surveyor-General of New South Wales are clearly 
marked. It will have been observed, that on leaving the Williorara, 
I crossed a range of mountains, if such those we crossed may be 
termed, the breadth of which, at that place, was about 25 miles. 
From these mountains we descended at once to that inhospitable 
region from which we never escaped. The principal features of 
the interior are the sandy ridges or dunes, by which it is traversed 
from south to north, and the great Stony Desert. That the whole 
region traversed was once submerged, there cannot, I think, be a 
doubt. Its salsolaceous productions, its sea-level, its want of trees 
of any size or growth, excepting on the banks of the creeks, suf¬ 
ficiently attest this; but whether the sandy ridges were thrown up 
