hand, east and west before me stretching, these eternal mountains stand.  It is a singular feature in a strange land, and God knows by what beady drops of toilsome sweat Tietkens and I rescued it from its former and ancient oblivion.  Its position in latitude is between the 24th and 25th parallels, and its longitude between 127 degrees 30’ and 128 degrees 30’.  I named it the Rawlinson Range, after Sir Henry Rawlinson, President of the Royal Geographical Society of London.  I found a singular moth- and fly-catching, plant in this range; it exudes a gummy substance, by which insects become attached to the leaves.  The appearance of this range from a distance is white, flat, corrugated, rounded, and treeless.  It rises between 1100 and 1200 feet in its highest portions, about the centre, in the neighbourhood of Fort McKellar, above the surrounding country, though its greatest elevation above the sea is over 3000 feet.

On the 1st of February, after a very hot night, we made a late start for the North-west Mountain, which now bore nearly north-east.  It took some miles to get clear of the stones of the range, the appearance of the new feature we were steering for being most inviting.  Its corrugated front proclaimed the existence of ravines and gorges, while a more open valley ran between it and some lower hills immediately to the west of it.

The horses were so delighted to get off the stones, that they travelled uncommonly fast, and we got over twenty-eight miles by night, though the country was exceedingly heavy travelling, being all high, red sandhills, and until near the end of our day’s stage we could scarcely ever see the mountain at all.  We encamped without water, but I expected to get some early next day at the mountain.  Two of the horses lay down at the camp all night, being thirsty, tired, and footsore; there was no grass for them.  The thermometer to-day indicated 108 degrees in the shade.  A great number of the horses, from being footsore, were lying down this morning, and when mustered they all looked excessively hollow and thirsty.  If no water be found at this mountain, how many of them will be alive in a couple of days?  Yesterday we made twenty-eight, and to-day at twenty-three, miles we reached the foot of the mount.  There was an inviting valley, up which we took the horses a mile.  Then, leaving Gibson and Jimmy to await our return, Mr. Tietkens and I rode away in search of water.  It was evident that only a trifling shower, if any, had visited this range, for not a drop of water could be found, nor any rock reservoirs where it might lodge.  We parted company, and searched separately, but when we met again we could only report to each other our non-success.  It was now past two o’clock, our horses had been ridden somewhat fast over the most horrible and desolate stony places, where no water is, and they were now in a very exhausted state, especially Mr. Tietkens’s.