21st February.
As we were now three days' journey from the last water which could be
depended on for more than a few days, and the channel of the creek had
been so completely lost on the plain that it was uncertain whether the
marks of inundations near this camp had been caused by the creek flowing
to the west, or by some tributary flowing to the east, I determined to
attempt a south-west course, in the hope that, should the country prove
rocky, the heavy showers might have collected a sufficient quantity of
water to enable us to continue a southerly route, and accordingly
selected the most prominent point of the rising ground to the south of
our position, and at 6.5 a.m. started north 235 degrees east. After
leaving the open plains we entered a grassy box forest, which continued
to the foot of the hills, which we reached at 8.0. The slope of the hills
proved very scrubby, with small eucalypti and acacia, the soil red sand
and ironstone gravel; at 9.0 reached the highest part of the hills for
many miles round. To the south the country was slightly depressed for ten
or fifteen miles, and then rose into an even ridge or plain, the whole
country appearing to be covered with acacia and eucalyptus scrub. To the
west and north the view was more extended; the low ridge of sandstone
hills extended to the west-north-west, on the northern side of the grassy
flats for thirty miles, and only broken by a large valley from the north.
Throughout its whole extent this range appeared to rise to 150 or 200
feet above the plain, and had the appearance of being the edge of a level
tableland. South of the grassy plain, the western limit of which was not
seen, the country rose gradually to eighty or 100 feet, and presented an
extremely level and unvaried appearance. It was evident that our only
chance of farther progress was to follow the grassy plain to the west
till some change in the country rendered a southerly course practicable,
it being probable that some creek from the north might join the grassy
plain, and that the channel which had been lost might be reformed. At
9.30 steered north-west, and at 12.30 p.m. cleared the acacia scrub, and
at 1.30 reached the bank of the creek, which had formed a channel twenty
yards wide, with pools of water, which was brackish; but we were too glad
to find any water which we could use without detriment to object to it
because it was not agreeable in taste, and therefore encamped. We have
thus been a second time compelled to make a retrograde movement to the
north after reaching the same latitude as in the first attempt to
penetrate the desert; but I did not feel justified in incurring the
extreme risk which would have attended any other course, though following
the creek is by no means free from danger, as very few of the waterholes
which have supplied us on the outward track will retain any water till
the time of our return. The weather was calm and hot in the early part of
the day, and in the afternoon it clouded over, and there was a slight
shower of rain. According to our longitude, by account, we have this day
passed the boundary of Western Australia, which is in the 129th meridian.
Latitude by Canopus and Procyon 18 degrees 26 minutes.