Finding no water in the pass, we went to the more easterly of the two creeks; it was very small compared with the Docker.  It was now dusk, and we had to camp without water.  The day was hot.  This range is most singular in construction; it rises on either side almost perpendicularly, and does not appear to have very much water about it; the hills indeed seem to be mere walls, like the photographs of some of the circular ranges of mountains in the moon.  There was very fine grass, and our horses stayed well.  We had thunder and lightning, and the air became a little cooled.  The creek we were on appeared to rise in some low hills to the south; though it meandered about so much, it was only by travelling, we found that it came from a peculiar ridge, upon whose top was a fanciful-looking, broken wall or rampart, with a little pinnacle on one side.  When nearly abreast, south, of this pinnacle, we found some water in the creek-bed, which was now very stony.  The water was impregnated with ammonia from the excreta of emus, dogs, birds, beasts, and fishes, but the horses drank it with avidity.  Above this we got some sweet water in rocks and sand.  I called the queer-looking wall the Ruined Rampart.  There was a quantity of different kinds of water, some tasting of ammonia, some saltish, and some putrid.  A few ducks flew up from these strange ponds.  There was an overhanging ledge and cave, which gave us a good shade while we remained here, the morning being very hot.  I called these MacBain’s* Springs.

Following the creek, we found in a few miles that it took its rise in a mass of broken table-lands to the south.  We still had the high walls of the Petermann to the north, and very close to us.  In five miles we left this water-shed, and descended the rough bed of another creek running eastwards; it also had some very queer water in it—­there were pink, green, and blue holes.  Ducks were also here; but as we had no gun, we could not get any.  Some sweet water was procured by scratching in the sand.  This creek traversed a fine piece of open grassy country—­a very park-like piece of scenery; the creek joined another, which we reached in two or three miles.  The new creek was of enormous width; it came from the low hills to the south and ran north, where the Petermann parted to admit of its passage.  The natives were burning the country through the pass.  Where on earth can it go?  No doubt water exists in plenty at its head, and very likely where the natives are also; but there was none where we struck it.  I called this the Hull*.

The main range now ran on in more disconnected portions than formerly; their general direction was 25 degrees south of east.  We still had a mass of low hills to the south.  We continued to travel under the lea of the main walls, and had to encamp without water, having travelled twenty-five miles from the Ruined Rampart.  A high cone in the range I called Mount Curdie*.  The next morning I ascended the eastern