Next morning, watering all our horses, and having a fine open-air bath on the top of the Turtle Back, Mr. Tietkens and I got three of them and again started for Ayers Range, nearly west.  Reaching it, we travelled upon the bearing of the gap which we had seen in the most distant range.  The country as we proceeded we found splendidly open, beautifully grassed, and it rose occasionally into some low ridges.  At fifteen miles from the Turtle Back we found some clay-pans with water, where we turned out our horses for an hour.  A mob of emus came to inspect us, and Mr. Tietkens shot one in a fleshy part of the neck, which rather helped it to run away at full speed instead of detaining, so that we might capture it.  Next some parallel ridges lying north and south were crossed, where some beefwood, or Grevillea trees, ornamented the scene, the country again opening into beautiful grassy lawns.  One or two creek channels were crossed, and a larger one farther on, whose timber indeed would scarcely reach our course; as it would not come to us, we went to it.  The gum-timber upon it was thick and vigorous—­it came from the north-westward.  A quantity of the so called tea-tree [Melaleuca] grew here.  In two miles up the channel we found where a low ridge crossed and formed a kind of low pass.  An old native well existed here, which, upon cleaning out with a quart pot, disclosed the element of our search to our view at a depth of nearly five feet.  The natives always make these wells of such an abominable shape, that of a funnel, never thinking how awkward they must be to white men with horses—­some people are so unfeeling!  It took us a long time to water our three horses.  There was a quantity of the little purple vetch here, of which all animals are so fond, and which is so fattening.  There was plenty of this herb at the Turtle Back, and wherever it grows it gives the country a lovely carnation tinge; this, blending with the bright green of the grass, and the yellow and other tinted hues of several kinds of flowers, impresses on the whole region the appearance of a garden.

In the morning, in consequence of a cold and dewy night, the horses declined to drink.  Regaining our yesterday’s course, we continued for ten miles, when we noticed that the nearest mountain seen from Ayers Range was now not more than thirty miles away.  It appeared red, bald, and of some altitude; to our left was another mass of jumbled turtle backs, and we turned to search for water among them.  A small gum creek to the south-south-east was first visited and left in disgust, and all the rocks and hills we searched, were equally destitute of water.  We wasted the rest of the day in fruitless search; Nature seemed to have made no effort whatever to form any such thing as a rockhole, and we saw no place where the natives had ever even dug.  We had been riding from morning until night, and we had neither found water nor reached the mountain.  We returned to our last night’s camp, where the sand had all fallen into the well, and we had our last night’s performance with the quart pot to do over again.