I climbed to the summit of the mount.  On the top was a native fig-tree in full bearing; the fruit was ripe and delicious.  It is the size of an ordinary marble, yellow when unripe, and gradually becoming red, then black:  it is full of small seeds.  I was disturbed from my repast by seeing the horses, several hundred feet below me, going away in the wrong direction.  And I had to descend before I had time to look around; but the casual glance I obtained gave me the most gloomy and desolate view imaginable; one, almost enough to daunt the explorer from penetrating any farther into such a dreadful region.  To the eastward, I found I had now long outrun the old main chain of mountains, which had turned up to the north, or rather north-north-westward; between me and it a mass of jumbled and broken mounts appeared; each separate one, however, was almost surrounded by scrubs, which ran up to the foot of the hill I was upon.  Northward the view was similar.  To the west the picture was the same, except that a more defined range loomed above the intervening scrubs—­the hills furthest away in that direction being probably fifty miles distant.  The whole horizon looked dark and gloomy—­I could see no creeks of any kind, the most extensive water channels were mere gullies, and not existing at all at a mile from the hills they issued from.

Watering our horses proved a difficult and tedious task; as many of them would not approach the rocky basin, the water had to be carried up to them in canvas buckets.  By the time they were all watered, and we had descended from the rocky gully, the day had passed with most miraculous celerity.  The horses did not finish the water, there being nearly sufficient to give them another drink.  The grass was good here, as a little flat, on which grew some yellow immortelles, had recently been burnt.  I allowed the horses to remain and drink up the balance of the water, while I went away to inspect some other gorges or gullies in the hills to the west of us, and see whether any more water could be found.  The day was cool and fine.

I climbed to the summit of a hill about 800 feet from its base.  The view was similar to yesterday’s, except that I could now see these hills ran on west for twelve or fifteen miles, where the country was entirely covered with scrubs.  Little gullies, with an odd, and stunted, gum-tree here and there, were seen.  Few of these gullies were more than six feet wide, and the trumpery little streams that descend, in even their most flooded state, would be of but little service to anybody.  I had wandered up and down hills, in and out of gullies, all the morning, but had met no single drop of water, and was returning disappointed to the camp when, on trying one more small scrubby, dreadfully-rocky little gully which I had missed, or rather passed by, in going out, I was fortunate enough to discover a few small rocky holes full of the purest fluid.  This treasure was small indeed, but my gratitude was great; for what pleased me most was the rather strange fact that the water was trickling from one basin to another, but with the weakest possible flow.  Above and below where I found this water the gully and the rocks were as dry as the desert around.  Had the supply not been kept up by the trickling, half my horses would have emptied all the holes at a draught.