The 1st of July broke with a fine and beautiful morning, and we left Lake Bring none the worse for our compulsory delay.  I was anxious to reach Youldeh so soon as possible, as I had a great deal of work to do when I arrived there.  To-day we travelled nearly west seventeen or eighteen miles, and encamped without an oasis.  On the 2nd we passed two rocky hills, named respectively Pondoothy and Poothraba, Pondoothy was an indented rock-crowned hill in the scrubs.  Standing on its summit I descried an extraordinary line cut through the scrubs, which ran east by north, and was probably intended by the natives for a true east line.  The scrub timber was all cut away, and it looked like a survey line.  Upon asking old Jimmy what it was done for, and what it meant, he gave the usual reply, that Cockata black fellow make ’em.  It was somewhat similar to the path I had seen cleared at Pylebung in March last, and no doubt it is used for a similar purpose.  Leaving this hill and passing Poothraba, which is in sight of it, we continued our nearly west course, and camped once more in the scrubs.  The country was very difficult for the loaded camels, it rose into such high ridges or hills of sand that we could only traverse it at a snail’s pace.  It was of course still covered with scrubs, which consisted here, as all over this region, mostly of the Eucalyptus dumosa, or mallee-trees, of a very stunted habit; occasionally some patches of black oaks as we call them, properly casuarinas, with clumps of mulga in the hollows, here and there a stunted cypress pine, callitris, some prickly hakea bushes, and an occasional so called native poplar, Codonocarpus cotinifolius, a brother or sister tree to the poisonous Gyrostemon.  The native poplar is a favourite and harmless food for camels, and as it is of the same family as the Gyrostemon, my friend Baron von Mueller argues that I must be mistaken in the poison plant which affected the camels.  He thinks it must be a plant of the poisonous family of the Euphorbiaceae, and which certainly grows in these regions, and which I have collected specimens of, but I cannot detect it.

We were now nearly in the latitude of Youldeh, and had only to push west to reach it; but the cow camel that Jimmy and Tommy rode, being very near calving, had not travelled well for some days, and gave a good deal of trouble to find her of a morning.  I wished to get her to Youldeh before she calved, as I intended to form a depot there for a few weeks, during which time I hoped the calf would become strong enough to travel.  On the morning of the 5th, only about half the mob were brought up to the camp, and, as Mr. Tietkens’ and my riding camels were amongst them, we rode off to Youldeh, seven or eight miles away, telling the others to come on as soon as they could.  Mr. Young, Saleh, and Tommy were away after the absent animals.  On arriving I found Youldeh much the same as when I left it, only now the weather was cool, and the red sandhills, that had