Our party being once more all together, it became necessary to decide upon our future movements, the water in the hole at the depot being nearly all used, and what was left being very muddy and unpalatable.  Before I abandoned our present position, however, I was anxious to make a journey to the shores of Lake Torrens to the westward; I had already visited its basin at points fully 150 miles apart, viz. in about 29 degrees 10 minutes S. latitude, and in 31 degrees 30 minutes S. I had also traced its course from various heights in Flinders range, from which it was distinctly visible, and in my mind, had not the slightest doubt that it was one continuous and connected basin.  Still, from the hills of our present depot, it was not visible to the north of west, and I should not have felt myself justified in going away to the eastward, without positively ascertaining its connection with the basin I was at to the north-west; accordingly, as soon as the overseer returned I got ready for another harassing and uninteresting journey to the westward.

August 22.—­Setting off early this morning, accompanied by a native boy, I steered W.N.W.  For the first four miles, I took my overseer along with me, to shew him the direction I intended to take, so that if I did not return in two days, he might send a pack-horse with water to meet me along the tracks.

After he had left I pushed steadily on for thirty-five miles, principally over heavy sandy ridges, which were very fatiguing to the horses, and at dark reached the outer dunes of the lake, where I was obliged to tie the horses up to some small bushes, as there was neither water nor grass for them.  The bed of the lake where I struck it, seemed dry for some distance from the shore, but towards the middle there appeared to be a large body of water.  From our camp Mount Deception bore E. 26 degrees S. and Termination Hill, E. 35 degrees N.

August 23.—­Starting early, I traced the course of the lake north-westerly for ten miles, and was then able to satisfy myself that it was a part of the same vast basin I had seen so much further to the north, it inclined here considerably to the westward, and this circumstance added to the high sandy ridges intervening between it and Flinders range fully explained the cause of our not having observed its course to the north of west from the hills near our depot.  Crossing the sandy ridge bounding the basin of the lake, I was surprised to see its bed apparently much contracted, and the opposite shore distinctly visible, high, rocky and bluff to the edge of the water, seemingly only seven or eight miles distant, and with several small islands or rocks scattered over its surface.  This was however only deceptive, and caused by the very refractive state of the atmosphere at the time, for upon dismounting and leading the horses into the bed of the lake, the opposite shore appeared to recede, and the rocks or islands turned out to be only very small lumps of dirt or clay lying in the bed of the lake, and increased in magnitude by refraction.