SEARCH FOR WATER BY MOONLIGHT.  ENCAMP WITHOUT ANY.

The carts were then three miles behind me, and although we sent by moonlight for water for the party the poor cattle could not be watered, and were consequently kept in their yokes all night to prevent their straying in search of it.

Having examined the bed of the dry creek to some distance below the rock where the water remained I found its course so sinuous, and its banks so steep, the valley itself having no breadth, steep-sided hills closing on the deep dry channel, so that it must have been almost impossible to proceed that way with the party.  I therefore determined to explore the country more to the right, early next morning, expecting to find in that direction a line of route by which we might be sooner extricated from these sinuous valleys and hilly extremities.  I hoped also that we should thus reach some more united channel deep enough to retain a portion of the waters of more favourable seasons.

FOLLOW A VALLEY DOWNWARDS AND FIND WATER.

April 10.

I went forward (prima luce) and soon gained a low ridge, the rocky points of which had obliged me to keep to the valley in seeking for water the preceding evening.  From this ridge I had the satisfaction of following with my eye into the far distant level country a continuous valley, the apparent outlet or channel of all these mountain torrents, and which, I had no doubt, contained water.  Having marked out the best passage I could find to this point for the bullock teams I descended to the valley before me and, after following it about four miles, the hollows in the dry bed of the rivulet appeared moist.

LUXURY OF POSSESSING WATER AFTER LONG PRIVATION.

At two miles further I found water in the crevices of a rock, and a little lower still abundance for the cattle in a large pond.  After watering my thirsty horse I galloped back with the encouraging tidings to the party, and by eleven o’clock we had encamped beside the water, with the agreeable certainty of obtaining breakfast, and with excellent appetites for it.

LIFELESS APPEARANCE OF THE VALLEYS.

We had passed through valleys, on first descending from the mountains, where the yellow oat-grass (or Anthisteria) resembled a ripe crop of grain.  But this resemblance to the emblem of plenty made the desolation of these hopeless solitudes only the more apparent, abandoned as they then were alike by man, beast, and bird.  No living thing remained in these valleys, for water, that element so essential to life, was a want too obvious in the dismal silence (for not an insect hummed) and the yellow hues of withering vegetation.

We had at length emerged from these arid valleys, and entered upon an open and more promising country.  Our boats and heavily laden carts had crossed all the mountains in our way without any accident, and we had water in abundance.