good watering places.  Descending, and leaving Gibson and Jimmy with the horses, Mr. Tietkens and I rode in different directions in search of water.  In about two hours we met, in the only likely spot either of us had seen; this was a little watercourse, and following it up to the foot of the hills found a most welcome and unexpectedly large pond for such a place.  Above it in the rocks were a line of little basins which contained water, with a rather pronounced odour of stagnation about it; above them again the water was running, but there was a space between upon which no water was seen.  We returned for the horses and camped as near as we could find a convenient spot; this, however, was nearly a mile from the water.  The valley ran north-east and south-west; it was very narrow, not too open, and there was but poor grass and herbage, the greater portion of the vegetation being spinifex.  At eight o’clock at night a thunderstorm came over us from the west, and sprinkled us with a few drops of rain; from west the storm travelled north-west, thence north to east and south, performing a perfect circle around; reaching its original starting point in about an hour, it disappeared, going northerly again.  The rest of the night was beautifully calm and clear.  Some of our horses required shoeing for the first time since we had left the telegraph line, now over 600 miles behind us.  From the top of a hill here the western horizon was bounded by low scrubby ridges, with an odd one standing higher than the rest; to one of these I decided to go next.  Some other hills lay a little more to the south, but there was nothing to choose between them; hills also ran along eastward and north-eastwards.  At eight o’clock again to-night a thunderstorm came up from the westward; it sprinkled us with a few drops of rain, and then became dispersed to the south and south-east.

The following day we passed in shoeing horses, mending pack-bags, restuffing pack-saddles, and general repairs.  While out after the horses Mr. Tietkens found another place with some water, about two miles southerly on the opposite or west side of the valley.  Finishing what work we had in hand, we remained here another day.  I found that water boiled in this valley at 209 degrees, making the approximate altitude of this country 1534 above sea level.  This we always called the Shoeing Camp.  We had remained there longer than at any other encampment since we started; we arrived on the 14th and left on the 18th October.

Getting over a low fall in the hills opposite the camp, I turned on my proper course for another hill and travelled fifteen miles; the first three being through very fine country, well grassed, having a good deal of salt bush, being lightly timbered, and free from spinifex.  The scrub and triodia very soon made their appearance together, and we were forced to camp in a miserable place, there being neither grass nor water for the unfortunate horses.