The country as we advanced became more open and barren.

We traversed plains covered with atriplex and rhagodiae, in the midst of which there were large bare patches of red clay.

In these rain water lodges, but being exceedingly shallow they soon dry up and their surfaces become cracked and blistered.

From the point at which we changed our course the ground gradually rose, and at 26 miles we ascended a small sand hill with a little grass growing upon it.
From this hill we descended into and crossed a broad dry creek with a gravelly bed, and as its course lay directly parallel to our own, we kept in the shade of the gum-trees that were growing along its banks.
At about four miles beyond this point Topar called out to us to stop near a native well he then shewed us, for which we might in vain have hunted.
From this we got a scanty supply of bad water, after some trouble in cleaning and clearing it, insomuch that we were obliged to bale it out frequently during the night to obtain water for our horses.

This creek, like others, was marked by a line of gum-trees on either side; and from the pure and clean gravel in its bed, I was led to infer that it was subject to sudden floods.