The brush swept over them, and we could see it stretching to the horizon on the distant plains between them.

Excepting where the nearer hills rose above it, that horizon was unbroken; nor were the hills, although detached groups still existed to the north-east, distinguishable from the dark plains round them, as the brush extended over all, and the same sombre hue pervaded everything.

I should still, however, have persevered in exploring that hopeless region; but my mind had for the last day or two been anxiously drawn to the state of the camp, and the straits to which I felt assured it would have been put, if Mr.Poole had not succeeded in finding water in greater quantity than that on which the people depended when Mr.Browne and I left them.

Having been twelve days absent, I felt convinced that the water in the creek had dried up, and thought it more than probable that Mr.Poole had been forced to move from his position.

Under such circumstances, I abandoned, for the time, any further examination of the north-east interior, and turning round to the south-west, passed up a flat rather than a valley between the hills, and halted on it at half-past 6 p.m.On the 23rd, we continued on a south-west course, and gradually ascended the more elevated part of the range; at 2 p.m.reached the water-hole we discovered the day we crossed the hills to the little peaks.