course, and on the bearing of the low hills we had seen to the westward, and which were now distinctly visible.

For the first five miles we travelled over firm and open plains of clay and sand, similar to the soil of the plains of the Murray.

At length the ground became covered with fragments of quartz rock, ironstone, and granite.

It appeared as if M'Adam had emptied every stone he ever broke to be strewed over this metalled region.

The edges of the stones were not, however, rounded by attrition, or mixed together, but laid on the plains in distinct patches, as if large masses of the different rocks had been placed at certain distances from each other and then shivered into pieces.