of repose we had continued oppressive weather, the thermometer standing from 92 and 94 to 96 degrees every afternoon, but the nights were agreeably cool, if not cold.  We had generally very cloudy mornings; the flies were particularly numerous and troublesome, and I became convinced that any further travel to the west would have to be carried on under very unfavourable circumstances.  This little dam was situated in latitude 29 degrees 19’ 4”, and longitude 128 degrees 38’ 16”, showing that we had crossed the boundary line between the two colonies of South and Western Australia, the 129th meridian.  I therefore called this the Boundary Dam.  It must be recollected that we are and have been for 7 1/2 degrees of longitude—­that is to say, for 450 miles of westing, and 130 miles of northing—­occupying the intervening period between the 9th of June, to the 3rd of September, entirely enveloped in dense scrubs, and I may say that very few if any explorers have ever before had such a region to traverse.  I had managed to penetrate this country up to the present point, and it was not to be wondered at if we all ardently longed for a change.  Even a bare, boundless expanse of desert sand would be welcomed as an alternative to the dark and dreary scrubs that surrounded us.  However, it appeared evident to me, as I had traversed nothing but scrubs for hundreds of miles from the east, and had found no water of any size whatever in all the distance I had yet come, that no waters really existed in this country, except an occasional native well or native dam, and those only at considerable distances apart.  Concluding this to be the case, and my object being that the expedition should reach the city of Perth, I decided there was only one way to accomplish this—­namely, to go thither, at any risk, and trust to Providence for an occasional supply of water here and there in the intermediate distance.  I desired to make for a hill or mountain called Mount Churchman by Augustus Churchman Gregory in 1846.  I had no written record of water existing there, but my chart showed that Mount Churchman had been visited by two or three other travellers since that date, and it was presumable that water did permanently exist there.  The hill was, however, distant from this dam considerably over 600 miles in a straight line, and too far away for it to be possible we could reach it unless we should discover some new watering places between.  I was able to carry a good supply of water in casks, water-beds and bags; and to enable me to carry this I had done away with various articles, and made the loads as light as possible; but it was merely lightening them of one commodity to load them with a corresponding weight of water.  At the end of a week I was tired of the listless life at the camp.  The cow camel had not calved, and showed no greater disposition to do so now than when we arrived, so I determined to delay no longer on her account.  The animals had done remarkably well here, as the