We rode through brushes of polygonum, under rough-gum, without a blade of vegetation, the whole space being subject to inundation.

We then got on small plains of firmer surface, and red soil, but these soon changed again for the former; and at 4 p.m.we found ourselves advanced about two miles on a plain that stretched away before us, and bounded the horizon.

It was dismally brown; a few trees only served to mark the distance.

Up one of the highest I sent Hopkinson, who reported that he could not see the end of it, and that all around looked blank and desolate.

It is a singular fact, that during the whole day, we had not seen a drop of water or a blade of grass.
DESOLATING EFFECTS OF THE DROUGHT.
To have stopped where we were, would, therefore, have been impossible; to have advanced, would probably have been ruin.