Samphire, salsolae, and mesembryanthemum
were growing on it, and one would have supposed from its appearance that
it was a sea marsh. Mr. Stuart shot a beautiful ground parrot as we were
crossing it, on a bearing of 345 degrees, or little more than a N. and by
W. course. At 6 1/2 miles we ascended some heavy sandy ridges, without
any regularity in their disposition, but lying in great confusion.
Toiling over these, at seven or eight miles farther we sighted a fine
sheet of water, bearing N. and distant about two miles. At another mile I
altered my course to 325 degrees, to pass to the westward of this new
feature, which then proved to be a lake about the size of Lake Bonney,
that is to say from 10 to 12 miles in circumference. The ridge by which
we had approached it terminated suddenly and directly over it; to our
right there were other ridges terminating in a similar manner, with rushy
flats between them; eastward the country was dark and very low; to the
north there was a desert of glittering white sand in low hillocks,
scattered over with dwarf brush, and on it the heat was playing as over a
furnace. Immediately beneath me to the west there was a flat leading to
the shore of the lake, and on the western side a bright red sand hill,
full eighty feet high, shut out the view in that quarter. This ridge was
not altogether a mile and a half in length, and behind it there were
other ridges of the same colour bounding the horizon with edges as sharp
as icebergs.
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