Finding the river now trended not only northerly, but even east of north, we had to go in that direction, passing over some very high sandhills, where we met the Finke at almost right angles.  Although the country was quite open, it was impossible to see the river channel, even though fringed with rows of splendid gum-trees, for any distance, as it became hidden by the high sandhills.  I was very reluctant to cross, on account of the frightfully boggy bed of the creek, but, rather than travel several miles roundabout, I decided to try it.  We got over, certainly, but to see one’s horses and loads sinking bodily in a mass of quaking quicksand is by no means an agreeable sight, and it was only by urging the animals on with stock-whips, to prevent them delaying, that we accomplished the crossing without loss.  Our riding horses got the worst of it, as the bed was so fearfully ploughed up by the pack-horses ahead of them.  The whole bed of this peculiar creek appears to be a quicksand, and when I say it was nearly a quarter of a mile wide, its formidable nature will be understood.  Here a stream of slightly brackish water was trickling down the bed in a much narrower channel, however, than its whole width; and where the water appears upon the surface, there the bog is most to be apprehended.  Sometimes it runs under one bank, sometimes under the opposite, and again, at other places the water occupies the mid-channel.  A horse may walk upon apparently firm sand towards the stream, when, without a second’s warning, horse and rider may be engulfed in quicksand; but in other places, where it is firmer, it will quake for yards all round, and thus give some slight warning.

Crossing safely, and now having the river on my right hand, we continued our journey, sighting a continuous range of hills to the north, which ran east and west, and with the glasses I could see the river trending towards them.  I changed my course for a conspicuous hill in this new line, which brought me to the river again at right angles; and, having so successfully crossed in the morning, I decided to try it again.  We descended to the bank, and after great trouble found a spot firm enough and large enough to allow all the horses to stand upon it at one time, but we could not find a place where they could climb the opposite bank, for under it was a long reach of water, and a quagmire extending for more than a mile on either side.  Two of our riding-horses were badly bogged in trying to find a get-away:  finally, we had to cut boughs and sticks, and bridge the place over with them.  Thus we eventually got the horses over one by one without accident or loss.  In four miles we touched on a bend of the river again, but had no occasion to recross, as it was not in our road.  This day, having wasted so much time in the crossings, we travelled only fifteen miles.  The horizon from this camp was bounded from south-west, and west, round by north, to north-west, by ranges; which I was