troubles for the time are at an end.  Thirst, that dire affliction that besets the wanderer in the Australian wilds, at last is quenched; his horses, unloaded, are allowed to roam and graze and drink at will, free from the encumbrance of hobbles, and the traveller’s other appetite of hunger is also at length appeased, for no matter what food one may carry, it is impossible to eat it without water.  This was truly a mental and bodily relief.  After our hunger had been satisfied I took a more extended survey of our surroundings, and found that we had dropped into a really very pretty little spot.

Low sandstone hills, broken and split into most extraordinary shapes, forming huge caves and caverns, that once no doubt had been some of the cavernous depths of the ocean, were to be seen in every direction; little runnels, with a few gum-trees upon them, constituted the creeks.  Callitris or cypress pines, ornamented the landscape, and a few blood-wood or red gum-trees also enlivened the scene.  No porcupine, but real green grass made up a really pretty picture, to the explorer at least.  This little spot is indeed an oasis.  I had climbed high hills, traversed untold miles of scrub, and gone in all directions to try and pick up the channel of a wretched dry creek, when all of a sudden I stumbled upon a perfect little paradise.  I found the dimensions of this little tarn are not very large, nor is the quantity of water in it very great, but untouched and in its native state it is certainly a permanent water for its native owners.  It has probably not been filled since last January or February, and it now contains amply sufficient water to enable it to last until those months return, provided that no such enormous drinkers as horses draw upon it; in that case it might not last a month.  I found the actual water was fifty feet long, by eight feet wide, and four feet deep; the rocks in which the water lies are more than twenty feet high.  The main ridges at the back are between 200 and 300 feet high.  The native fig-tree (Ficus orbicularis) grows here most luxuriantly; there are several of them in full fruit, which is delicious when thoroughly ripe.  I had no thought of deserting this welcome little spot for a few days.  On the following morning Mr. Carmichael and I loaded a pack-horse with water and started back into the scrub to where we left the little mare the day before yesterday.  With protractor and paper I found the spot we left her at bore from this place south 70 degrees west, and that she was now no more than thirteen or fourteen miles away, though we had travelled double the distance since we left her.  We therefore travelled upon that bearing, and at thirteen and a half miles we cut our former track at about a quarter of a mile from where we left the mare.  We soon picked up her track and found she had wandered about a mile, although hobbled, from where we left her.  We saw her standing, with her head down, under an oak tree truly distressed.