That these regions are subject to heavy rains I had not the slightest doubt, but could the effect of heavy rains have produced these creeks, short and uncertain in their course, rising apparently in one plain, to spread over and terminate in another, for had we gone more to the westward in our course than we did, it is probable we should never have known of the existence of any of them.  I was truly thankful that we had thus fallen upon them, and considering how much our further success depended on their continuance, I began to hope that we should find them a permanent feature in the country.

About this period and two or three days previously, we observed a white bank of clouds hanging upon the northern horizon, and extending from N.E. to N.W.  No wind affected it, but without in the least altering its shape, which was arched like a bow, it gradually faded away about 3 p.m.  Could this bank have been over any inland waters?

At the point to which I have now brought the reader, we were in lat. 27 degrees 38 minutes S., and in long. 140 degrees 10 minutes by account, and here, as I have observed, as in our journey to Lake Torrens, the N.E. winds were invariably cold.  On the 22nd we crossed the creek, and traversed a large plain on the opposite side that was bounded in the distance by a line of sand hills.  On this plain were portions of ground perfectly flat, raised some 12 or 18 inches above its general level; on these, rhagodia bushes were growing, which in the distance looked like large trees, in consequence of the strong refraction.  The lower ground of these plains had little or no vegetation upon it, but bore the appearance of land on which water has lodged and subsided; being hard and baked in some places, but cracked and blistered in others, and against the sides of the higher portions of the plain, a line of sticks and rubbish had been lodged, such as is left by a retiring tide, and from this it seemed that the floods must have been about a foot deep on the plain when it was last inundated.  At 4 1/2 miles we reached its western extremity, and ascending the line of sand hills by which it is bounded on that side, dropped down to another plain, and at six miles intersected a creek with a deep broad and grassy bed, but no water.  A high row of gum trees marked its course from a point rather from the southward of east to the north-north-west.  Crossing to the opposite side we ascended another sand hill by a gradual rise, and again descended to another plain, at the farther extremity of which we could indistinctly see a dark line of trees.  Arriving at these after a ride of six miles, we were stopped by another creek.  Its banks were too steep for the cart, and we consequently turned northward and traced it downwards for four miles before we found a convenient spot at which to halt.  The ground along the creek side was of the most distressing nature; rent to pieces by solar heat, and entangled with polygonum twisted together.  We passed several