I went to sleep that night dreaming how I had met Mr. Gosse in this wilderness, and produced a parody upon ‘How I found Livingstone.’  We travelled nearly thirty miles to-day upon all courses, the country passed over being principally very fine valleys, richly clothed with grass and almost every other kind of valuable herbage.  Yesterday, the 28th of September, was rather a warm day; I speak by the card, for at ten o’clock at night Herr Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit had not condescended to fall below 82 degrees.  The horses found water in the night, and in the morning looked sleek and full.  I intended now, as I said before, to follow Gosse’s dray track, for I knew he could not be very far in advance.

We followed the track a mile, when it turned suddenly to the south-west, down a valley with a creek in it that lay in that direction.  But as a more leading one ran also in a more westerly direction, I left the dray track almost at right angles, and proceeded along the more westerly line.  The valley I now traversed became somewhat scrubby with mallee and triodia.  In seven or eight miles we got into much better country, lightly timbered with mulga and splendidly grassed.  Here also were some cotton and salt bush flats.  To my English reader I may say that these shrubs, or plants, or bushes are the most valuable fodder plants for stock known in Australia; they are varieties of the Atriplex family of plants, and whenever I can record meeting them, I do it with the greatest satisfaction.  At twelve miles the hills to our north receded, and there lay stretched out before us a most beautiful plain, level as a billiard table and green as an emerald.  Viewing it from the top of a hill, I could not help thinking what a glorious spot this would make for the display of cavalry manoeuvres.  In my mental eye I could see

   “The rush of squadrons sweeping,
    Like whirlwinds o’er the plain;”

and mentally hear

   “The shouting of the slayers,
    The screeching of the slain.”

I called this splendid circle the Champ de Mars; it is, I dare say, fifteen or sixteen miles round.  The hills on the northern side were much higher than those near us, and appeared more inviting for water; so we rode across the circle to them.  In a kind of gully between the hills, at four and a half miles, I found a rock-hole full of water in a triodia creek; it was seven or eight feet deep, and almost hidden amongst rocks and scrubs.  The water drained into the hole from above.  By the time my horses were all satisfied they had lowered it very considerably, and I did not think there would be a drink for them all in the morning; but when we took them up next day I found the rocky basin had been replenished during the night.