I left the horses and ascended to the top, about 900 feet above the scrubs which surrounded it.

The horizon was broken by low ranges nearly all round, but scrubs as usual intervened between them.

I descended and walked into dozens of gullies and rocky places, and I found some small holes and basins, but all were dry.

At this spot I was eighty miles from a sufficient supply of water; that at the camp, forty-five miles away, may be gone by the time I return.
Under these circumstances I could not go any farther west.

It was now evening again.