About noon we stopped at the creek side to take some refreshment. The
country bore an improved appearance around us, and the cattle found
abundance of pasture. It was evident that the creek had been numerously
frequented by the natives, although no recent traces of them could be
found. It had a bed of coarse red granite, of the fragments of which the
natives had constructed a weir for the purpose of taking fish. The
appearance of this rock in so isolated a situation, is worthy of the
consideration of geologists.

DESOLATION OF THE COUNTRY.

The promise of improvement I have noticed, gradually disappeared as we
proceeded on our day's journey, and we at length found ourselves once more
among brushes, and on the edge of plains, over which the rhagodia
prevailed. Nothing could exceed in dreariness the appearance of the tracks
through which we journeyed, on this and the two following days. The creek
on which we depended for a supply of water, gave such alarming indications
of a total failure, that I at one time, had serious thoughts of abandoning
my pursuit of it. We passed hollow after hollow that had successively
dried up, although originally of considerable depth; and, when we at
length found water, it was doubtful how far we could make use of it.
Sometimes in boiling it left a sediment nearly equal to half its body; at
other times it was so bitter as to be quite unpalatable. That on which we
subsisted was scraped up from small puddles, heated by the sun's rays;
and so uncertain were we of finding water at the end of the day's journey,
that we were obliged to carry a supply on one of the bullocks. There was
scarcely a living creature, even of the feathered race, to be seen to
break the stillness of the forest. The native dogs alone wandered about,
though they had scarcely strength to avoid us; and their melancholy howl,