“Upon leaving our depot, near Mount Arden, the low, arid, and sandy nature of the country between the hills and Lake Torrens, compelled us to follow close under the continuation of Flinders range.  Here our progress was necessarily very slow, from the rugged nature of the country, the scarcity of water, and the great difficulty both of finding and obtaining access to it.  As we advanced, the hills inclined considerably to the eastward, gradually becoming less elevated, until, in latitude 29 degrees 20 minutes S., they ceased altogether, and we found ourselves in a very low and level country, consisting of large stony plains, varied occasionally by sand; and the whole having evidently been subject to recent and extensive inundation.  These plains are destitute of water, grass, and timber, and have only a few salsolaceous plants growing upon them; whilst their surface, whether stony or sandy, is quite smooth and even, as if washed so by the action of the water.  Throughout this level tract of country were interspersed, in various directions, many small flat-topped elevations, varying in height from 50 to 300 feet, and almost invariably exhibiting precipitous banks.  These elevations are composed almost wholly of a chalky substance, coated over on the upper surface by stones, or a sandy soil, and present the appearance of having formed a table land that has been washed to pieces by the violent action of water, and of which these fragments now only remain.  Upon forcing a way through this dreary region, in three different directions, I found that the whole of the low country round the termination of Flinders range, was completely surrounded by Lake Torrens, which, commencing not far from the head of Spencer’s Gulf, takes a circuitous course of fully 400 miles, of an apparent breadth of from twenty to thirty miles, following the sweep of Flinders range, and almost encircling it in the form of a horse shoe.

“The greater part of the vast area contained in the bed of this immense lake, is certainly dry on the surface, and consists of a mixture of sand and mud, of so soft and yielding a character, as to render perfectly ineffective all attempts either to cross it, or reach the edge of the water, which appears to exist at a distance of some miles from the outer margin.  On one occasion only was I able to taste of its waters; in a small arm of the lake near the most north-westerly part of it, which I visited, and here the water was as salt as the sea.  The lake on its eastern and southern sides, is bounded by a high sandy ridge, with salsolae and some brushwood growing upon it, but without any other vegetation.  The other shores presented, as far as I could judge, a very similar appearance; and when I ascended several of the heights in Flinders range—­from which the views were very extensive, and the opposite shores of the lake seemed to be distinctly visible—­no rise or hill of any kind could ever be perceived, either to the west, the north, on the east; the whole