Should my present supposition be correct, the idea of a northerly drainage is done away with, and we have yet to come to a "division of the waters." My uncertainty on this most important point has made me most anxious to get my party removed to a place where they can remain until I can decide so interesting a point, and one on which our future prospects so much depend.

The same causes that prevented my staying a little longer in the neighbourhood of the Lake have also prevented, as yet, my extending my researches to the north for more than about forty miles farther than I had been when last in this neighbourhood.

The only change I observed, was the increasing barren appearance of the country--the decrease in elevation of the ranges--their becoming more detached, with sterile valleys between--and the general absence of springs; the rock of the higher ridges, which were very rugged and abrupt, was still the same, quartz and ironstone, but much more of the latter than I had before seen, and, in some cases, with a very great proportion of metal to the stone.

The lower ridges and steep banks, when washed away by the rains, presented great quantities of a very pungent salt to the eye of the observer, mixed with the clay and sand of which the banks were formed; and in this neighbourhood the watercourses were (though dry) all lined with the salt-water tea-tree--a shrub we had never before seen under Flinders range.

My next push to the north will probably throw some light upon our future prospects, and I only regret it will not be in my power to communicate the intelligence.