At six miles we came to a small pool of water, where we breakfasted. On
leaving this we dug a hole and let the remainder of the water into it, in
the hope of its longer continuance, and halted after a long journey in a
valley in which there was a kind of watercourse with plenty of water, our
latitude being 28 degrees 21 minutes 39 seconds. Before we left this
place we cut a deep square hole, into which as before we drained the
water, that by diminishing its surface we might prevent the too speedy
evaporation of it, in case of our being forced back from the want of
water in the interior, since that element was becoming more scarce every
day. We saw but little change in the character of the country generally
as we rode through it, but observed that it was more open to the right,
in which direction we passed several extensive plains. There were heaps
of small pebbles also of ironstone and quartz on some of the flats we
crossed. We halted at the foot of a sand hill, where there was a good
deal of grass, after a vain search for water, of which we did not see a
drop during the day. The night of the 17th, like the preceding one, was
bitterly cold, with the wind at S.W. During the early part of this day we
passed over high ridges of sand, thickly covered with spinifex, and a new
polygonum, but subsequently crossed some flats of much greater extent
than usual, and of much better soil, but the country again fell off in
quality and appearance, although on the whole the tract we had crossed on
our present journey was certainly better than that we traversed in going
to Lake Torrens.
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