Under one low ridge we met with what I took to be a small spring emanating from a limestone rock; but it was so small as to be quite useless to a party like mine, though the natives appeared frequently to have resorted to it.  Finding the courses of the main channel become lost in its many branches, I ascended the dividing ridge, and crossed into the bed of another large watercourse, in which, after travelling but a short distance, I found a fine spring of running water among some very broken and precipitous ranges, which rose almost perpendicularly from the channel; in the latter, high ledges of a slaty rock stretched occasionally quite across its bed, making it both difficult and dangerous to get our horses along.  In the vicinity of the water the grass was tolerably good, but the declivities upon which it principally grew, were steep and very stony.

Having hobbled the horses, I took my gun, and walked down the watercourse, to a place where it forms a junction with a larger one, but in neither could I find any more water.  Upon my return, I found that the native boy had caught an opossum in one of the trees near, which proved a valuable addition to our scanty and unvaried fare.  The latitude to-day was 30 degrees 51 minutes S.

July 16.—­Tracing down the watercourse we were encamped on, to the junction before mentioned, I steered a little more to the north, to ascend a high stony range, from which I hoped to obtain a view to the eastward; but after considerable toil in climbing, and dragging our horses over loose rolling stones, which put them constantly in danger of falling back, I was not rewarded for the trouble I had taken:  the view to the east was quite shut out by high rugged ranges of ironstone and quartz, whilst to the north, the hills appeared lower and more open.

It now became a matter of serious consideration, whether I should pursue my researches any farther at present.  I was already about 120 miles away from my party, with barely provisions enough to last me back; and the country, in advance, appeared to be getting daily more difficult; added to this, the “Waterwitch” was waiting at the head of Spencer’s Gulf for my return.

After reflecting on my position, I decided to rejoin my party without delay; and descending the range to the S. E., I steered for a large watercourse we had crossed in the morning; intending to trace it up, for the purpose of examining its branches.  The bed of this watercourse, at first, was very wide, and lined with gum-trees; but as I advanced, I found its channel became contracted, and very rocky, the gum-trees disappearing, and giving place to the salt-water tea-tree.  By nightfall, I was unable to proceed any further, owing to the large stones and rocks that interposed themselves.  Retracing my steps, therefore, for a mile or two, to a little grass I had observed as I passed by, I bivouacked for the night, being, as well as the horses, quite knocked up.  The native