the shore described by Mr. Eyre on the western arm; and hence we have Lake Torrens, with its horseshoe shape, on our maps.

Leaving the Darling, which was taking him too much out of his northern course, at its junction with a small tributary, called by the natives the Williorara (the Menindie of the late expedition under Burke and Wills), he endeavoured to pass up the Williorara. But its waters quickly failed him, and pasture was becoming daily more scarce. The expedition had started in winter, so as by help of the spring showers to push to the north. The sun was now beginning to dry up the pools, and no time was to be lost. By means of forced marches, Captain Sturt and his men passed over a very inhospitable tract of country, and reached as high as lat. 29, when they unexpectedly came upon a picturesque spot, well watered and supplied with food for the cattle. To this was given the name of the Rocky Glen Depôt; and here Captain Sturt determined to allow both men and horses to recruit for some time, while he explored the country beyond, for the purpose of selecting the most safe northern route. With dismay he gradually ascertained that no northern route was to be found. The Rocky Glen ceased as suddenly towards the north as it had opened, and the country beyond became an absolute desert. In vain Captain Sturt and the officers under his command followed the course of every creek-now a cracked, baked channel and made long and harassing excursions into the district around. Neither water nor pasture was to be found beyond the Rocky Glen. Retreat, too, was cut off. The summer's sun had now dried up every pond and creek which had supplied them on their line of march, and six months' imprisonment in the Rocky Glen Depôt became certain.

For six months no rain fell. The violence of the sun became insupportable. To escape from its rays, a large underground chamber was excavated, to which the men retired during the heat of the day. Gradually the surrounding desert closed in on them. The whole vegetation of Rocky Glen became mere snuff, and was carried away by the hot blast. Nothing was left but the naked rocks, and the pool of water on which their lives depended. Day by day, it too yielded to the fury of the sun. 'Under its effects, every screw in our boxes had 'been drawn, and the horn handles of our instruments, as well as our combs, were split in fine lamina. The lead dropped 'out of our pencils; our signal rockets were entirely spoiled; our hair, as well as the wool on the sheep, ceased to grow, and our nails had become as brittle as glass.' Scurvy now

attacked the whole party. Some of the men would be unable to proceed with the expedition, and Mr. Poole was dying. In this condition, the winter months came slowly round, and the first refreshing shower fell. The way was again open, and it might be possible to save Mr. Poole. A litter of boughs and dried leaves was already prepared; and with Mr. Poole six of the men endeavoured to make a retreat on Adelaide. But the winter had been too long in coming. Mr. Poole died a few hours after his attendants had quitted the camp, and his body was brought back just as Captain Sturt and the remainder of the expedition were about to start on their northern course. His companions raised a rude pyramid of stones on a neighbouring hill to mark the place of his interment, and Mount Poole is all that is left to tell of the weary days spent in the Rocky Glen Depôt. That rude 'structure,' writes Captain Sturt, 'looks over his lonely grave, ' and will stand for ages, as a record of all we suffered in 'the dreary regions to which we were so long confined.'

About fifty miles further on, a fresh halting-place was discovered, called Park Depôt. And from Park Depôt Captain Sturt made two sustained efforts to reach the centre of the continent, passing each time through districts of a most singular nature. And now, for the first time, we approach the great Interior, that region from which the Murray had formerly borne Captain Sturt aside, and from which the gloomy prospect seen from Mount Hopeless had, more recently, compelled Mr. Eyre to turn. Doubtless, to the results of these two efforts is to be mainly attributed the opinion, up to a late period so almost universal, that all Central Australia would be found of a very worthless character. How strong were the grounds for this opinion we shall the better judge when we have followed our explorers on these two excursions from Park Depôt,

Accompanied by Mr. Brown and three men, Captain Sturt started from Park Depôt, maintaining a course 25 degrees west of north, or, in other words, bearing right down on the centre of the continent. In a short time, the country assumed all the appearance of a desert. Neither grass nor water was any longer visible, and the eye rested on nothing, to the brink of the horizon, but reddish-brown sand. Gradually, as they advanced, this sand swelled into long parallel ridges, running from east to west, and rising higher and higher, until at length our explorer's found themselves toiling over a very ocean of solid billows, some 50 or 60 feet high, and succeeding each other in endless uniformity. This formation bore no traces of the action of water, and must have been the slow result of a prevail

ing wind accumulating its solid waves in the gradual course of ages. At the distance of about 200 miles from Park Depôt, this singular country came to an abrupt termination, and our explorers stood before what is now known as Sturt's Stony Desert. The parallel sand ridges, running from east to west, were suddenly chopped off at right angles, and, in their stead, stretched an immense level plain, uninterrupted all round the horizon from south to north, and thickly strewn with small fragments of quartz, firmly packed together, and rounded as if waterworn. Still adhering to their course, 25 degrees west of north, our party descended into this singular plain, and proceeded on their way over its natural pavement. Neither herb nor shrub protruded through the firmly-wedged quartz fragments. No sound or movement could be heard or seen all round them, and the dray-wheels and hoofs of the horses left not the least impression on the surface of the plain. All that could attract or sustain animal and vegetable life Nature seemed to have rigidly excluded from this scene of desolation. Thus the sun went down, and Captain Sturt and his men encamped for the night in the Stony Desert.

With the morning, our party was again under weigh; and, at the distance of about thirty miles from its commencement, the Stony Desert was found to come to an equally abrupt termination. An immense plain of clay, or dried mud, now lay before them, entirely destitute of vegetation, and resembling, as Captain Sturt describes it, a boundless ploughed field, on which floods had settled and subsided.' No water, however, could be found, and the earth, cracked by the heat of the sun, abounded in immense fissures, which were avoided only by extreme watchfulness and care. Still maintaining their original course, our party arrived at the termination of this plain also, and found the tall sand ridges re-appear, precisely as they had left them on the eastern shore of the Stony Desert. In fact, the whole district seemed merely interrupted by the course of the Stony Desert and Mud Plain from north to south, and again resumed its former appearance without any disturbance whatever. Again our explorers toiled over this solid ocean of red billowsan ocean seen, as it were, under the glare of some great conflagration, lashed into waves running mountains high, and then suddenly frozen all round from centre to horizon. From want of

'Even the lower surface of the clouds assuming a lurid tinge, from the reflection of the bare surface of red sand.' (Despatch of Mr. A. C. Gregory, published in Proceedings of Royal Geographical Society for 1857.)

food and water, the horses were now almost exhausted; and the men, who could bring nothing with them from Park Depôt but some tea and a little flour, were scarcely better able to encounter the difficulties of this most harassing country.

At length a small creek appeared ahead, and revived the hopes of the party. It received the name of Eyre's Creek. It contained some good water, and communicated sufficient fertility to its neighbourhood to furnish a meal for the horses. On following it down, however, it soon died out on the desert, leaving merely a few incrustations of salt, and leading to a country as destitute of vegetation as that they had already traversed. Resuming their original course, from the slight deviation along Eyre's Creek, the party again proceeded on their way, and penetrated to lat. 25° 50′ without meeting any further signs of vegetation, and only a creek-whether a continuation of Eyre's Creek was not ascertained-which afforded no relief to man or horse. 'Its channel was glittering white, and thickly 'encrusted with salt, nor was any water visible; but, on going 'down to examine it, in several places, where the salt had 'the appearance of broken and rotten ice, we found that 'there were deep pools of perfect brine underneath, on which 'the salt floated, to the thickness of three or four inches.' They were now more than 400 miles from Park Depôt, and, with the exception of the head of Eyre's Creek, some fifty miles behind, had nothing in the intermediate region to fall back upon. They had advanced 200 miles beyond the Stony Desert, without meeting any indications of a permanent change in the nature of the country, or any encouragement whatever to proceed further. Both men and horses were so weak that any further advance would greatly endanger their retreat on Eyre's Creek. Under these circumstances, Captain Sturt decided to fall back on Eyre's Creek, and, by its assistance, to regain the Depôt. To reach the centre of the continent, in their present condition, would strain both horse and man; and should the centre of the continent be found a desert, their destruction would be certain.

'Yet I turned from it with a feeling of bitter disappointment. I was, at that moment, scarcely a degree from the tropic, and within 150 miles of the centre of the continent. If I had gained that spot, my task would have been performed, my most earnest wish would have been gratified; but, for some wise purpose, this was denied me. Yet I may truly say that I should not thus have abandoned my position, if it had not been a measure of urgent and imperative necessity.'

The party regained the main expedition with considerable

difficulty, and in a most exhausted condition. And so ends the first excursion from Park Depôt.

After some short rest at Park Depôt, Captain Sturt again started with Mr. Stuart and two men. His present object may be shortly explained. The whole appearance of the Stony Desert its immense deposits of mud on its western bank, the waterworn appearance of its quartz pebbles, the sudden change from sand ridge to level pavement and from mud bank to sand ridge, the similarity of the country for so many miles on each side of it all led him to the conclusion that it was the dry bed of some immense watercourse coming down from the north. Should this conclusion be correct, the Stony Desert would be again met by a more northern route, and might possibly furnish a key to the solution of this strange country. With this object Captain Sturt left his former course to Eyre's Creek a little on the left, diverging from it at a small stream which he called, in honour of his friend and fellow explorer, Strzelecki's Creek, and maintained a course from Strzelecki's Creek almost due north.

After some days' travelling, our explorers were agreeably surprised by increasing signs of fertility, and on the seventh day of their journey they came upon the banks of a fine creek flowing through an extensive and even picturesque tract of pastoral country. This is Cooper's Creek, so recently associated with the melancholy fate of Burke and Wills, after they had solved the most important problem of Australian exploration. Returning to their original course, after some examination of the Cooper's Creek district, Captain Sturt and his small party soon left this oasis behind them, and were again toiling over a sea of red sand ridges, exactly similar to those met with in the first excursion from Park Depôt. At the end of another week's travelling, the Stony Desert again appeared in all its awful stillness. It seemed broader at this point, and, though preserving the same features on its eastern bank, some changes were now observed on its opposite shore. There was no mud plain, and the Stony Desert itself, instead of being replaced by the red sand ridges, seemed to extend its character to the surrounding country. Some hills were completely covered to their summits with the same description of quartz fragments, so closely strewn as to obstruct all vegetation. Nor could any water be discovered. The country beyond seemed of a most forbidding character, and both men and horses were now suffering severely from want of water. For half an hour Captain Sturt sat on the summit of one of those quartz-clad hills, sweeping the horizon with his telescope, hoping to find some encouragement to advance. But no change in the nature