and boggy, with salt water mixed with the mud.  We had a good deal of difficulty in getting over it, and one of the drays having stuck fast, we had to unload it, carrying the things over on men’s backs.  A few miles beyond this we halted for the night, where there was good grass for the horses and plenty of water in the puddles around us.  We crossed principally during the day, a rather heavy sandy country, but were now encamped in plains of a firmer and better character for the drays.

September 14.—­Travelling on through open plains with loose gravelly stones, lying on their surface, we passed to the south of a small table-topped hill, visible from Mount Arden, and very much resembling the fragments of table land that I had met with to the north.  This however was somewhat larger than those, and though steep-sided as they were it did not disclose the same white strata of chalk and gypsum, its formation being more rocky and of rather a slaty character.

September 15.—­Pushing on rapidly over extensive plains very similar to those we had already crossed, we arrived, after a long stage, under Baxter’s range, and encamped upon a small channel coming from it, with abundance of water and good grass.  This range is high and rocky, rising abruptly out of the plains, and distinctly visible from Mount Arden, from which it is about fifty miles distant.  Its formation is entirely conglomerate of rather a coarse description.  Among its rugged overhanging steeps are many of the large red species of wallabie similar to those we had seen to the north at the Scott.  Two of these we shot.  The latitude of our camp at Baxter’s range was 32 degrees 40 minutes S.

September 16.—­Remained in camp to-day to rest the horses and prepare for dividing the party, as from the great abundance of rain that had fallen, I no longer apprehended a scarcity of water on the route to Streaky Bay, and therefore decided upon sending my overseer across with the party, whilst I myself took a dray down direct to Port Lincoln, on the west side of Spencer’s Gulf, to obtain additional supplies, with the intention of joining them again at Streaky Bay.

Having spent some time in taking bearings from the summit of Baxter’s range, I examined all the channels and gorges coming from it, and in most of these I found water.  I am of opinion however that in a very dry season, the water which I now found will be quite dried up, and especially in the largest of the watercourses, or the one upon which we were encamped. [Note 9:  In October 1842, this was quite dry, but water was still found in holes in the rocks in the southernmost gorge, above the waterfall, at the base of which water was also procured by digging in the gravel.]