to say whether it terminated or not, from the very great distance it was off.  The country lying between Flinders range on the one side, and the table land on the other, and north of Spencer’s Gulf, is of so low and so level a character that the eye alone is not a sufficient guide as to the direction in which the fall may be.  On my previous visits, I felt convinced it was northerly, but I am now inclined to think that the drainage from Lake Torrens in seasons of wet, is to the south, into the head of the Gulf; and I can only account for there not being a larger connecting watercourse than the small shallow one found when crossing from Streaky Bay—­and which I did not then imagine extended far above the head of the Gulf—­by supposing that the seasons have so altered of late years that the overflow of the lake has never been sufficient to cause a run of water to the Gulf.  Should my present supposition be correct, the idea of a northerly drainage is done away with, and we have yet to come to a “division of the waters.”  My uncertainty on this most important point has made me most anxious to get my party removed to a place where they can remain until I can decide so interesting a point, and one on which our future prospects so much depend.  The same causes that prevented my staying a little longer in the neighbourhood of the Lake have also prevented, as yet, my extending my researches to the north for more than about forty miles farther than I had been when last in this neighbourhood.  The only change I observed, was the increasing barren appearance of the country—­the decrease in elevation of the ranges—­their becoming more detached, with sterile valleys between—­and the general absence of springs; the rock of the higher ridges, which were very rugged and abrupt, was still the same, quartz and ironstone, but much more of the latter than I had before seen, and, in some cases, with a very great proportion of metal to the stone.  The lower ridges and steep banks, when washed away by the rains, presented great quantities of a very pungent salt to the eye of the observer, mixed with the clay and sand of which the banks were formed; and in this neighbourhood the watercourses were (though dry) all lined with the salt-water tea-tree—­a shrub we had never before seen under Flinders range.  My next push to the north will probably throw some light upon our future prospects, and I only regret it will not be in my power to communicate the intelligence.  I intended to have sent his Excellency a rough sketch of my last route, but have not been able to get it ready in time, and I fear I have already detained the little cutter too long:  during their detention, I requested the master to examine some salt water inlets on the east side of Spencer’s Gulf, and he said he would, but I have not yet heard the result of his researches.  Should he have found, a good landing-place for goods, it would be of much importance to the northern parts of the colony when they become