Mr. Browne returned to me in about three hours, having traced the creek upwards until he lost its channel, as Flood had done on a large plain, that extended northwards to the horizon.  He observed the country was very open in that direction, and had passed another pond of water, deeper but not so large as that at which we had stopped, and surprised an old native in his hut with two of his wives, from whom he learnt that there were both hills and fish to the north.

Whilst Mr. Browne was away, I debated within myself whether or not to turn from the course on which I had been running to trace this creek up.  The surface water was so very scarce, that I doubted the possibility of our getting on; but was reluctant to deviate from the line on which I had determined to penetrate, and I think that, generally, one seldom gains anything in so doing.  From Mr. Browne’s account of the creek, its character appeared to be doubtful, so that I no longer hesitated on my onward course; but we remained stationary for the remainder of the day.

The evening of this day was beautifully fine, and during it many flights of parrots and pigeons came to the water.  Of the latter we shot several, but they were very wild and wary.  There was on the opposite side of the creek a long grassy flat, with box-trees growing on it, together with a new Bauhinia, which we saw here for the first time.  On this grassy flat there were a number of the water-hens we had noticed on the little fresh-water creek near Lake Torrens.  These birds were running about like fowls all over the grass, but although they had been so tame as to occupy the gardens and to run about the streets of Adelaide, they were now wild enough.

Mr. Browne remarked that the females he had seen were, contrary to general custom as regards that sex, deficient in the two front teeth of the upper jaw, but that the teeth of the man were entire, and that he was not otherwise disfigured.  I was anxious to have seen these natives, and, as their hut was not very far from us, we walked to it in the cool of the afternoon, but they had left, and apparently gone to the N.E.; we found some mussel shells amongst the embers of some old fire near it.  Our latitude at this point was 28 degrees 3 minutes S., at a distance of 86 miles from the Park.

We left on the morning of the 20th at an early hour, and after crossing that portion of the plain lying to the westward, ascended a small conical sand hill, that rose above the otherwise level summit of the ridge.  From this little sand hill we had our anticipations confirmed as to the low nature of the country to the north as a medium point, but observing another and a much higher point to the westward, we went to, and found that the view extended to a much greater distance from it.  The country was very depressed, both to the north and northwest.  The plains had almost the character of lagoons, since it was evident they were sometimes inundated, from the water mark on the