At eight we proceeded to the north-north-west, our course taking us over a broken barren country; the hills composed of rocks and small stones, the valleys and flats of sand.  To the westward of our route the country was covered with scrubs of the eucalyptus dumosa; these scrubs we avoided, by keeping close along the base of Peel’s range, where the country had been lately burnt.  It is somewhat singular that those scrubs and brushes seldom if ever extend to the immediate base of the hills:  the washings from them rendered the soil somewhat better for two or three hundred yards.  As to water, we did not see the least signs of any during the whole day.  After proceeding between nine and ten miles, we stopped for the evening on some burnt grass, which existed in sufficient quantity; but, although we procured a few gallons of water for ourselves, not all our researches could find a sufficiency for the horses.

The dogs killed a pretty large emu, which was a most luxurious addition to our salt pork, of which alone we were all well satiated.  I ascended the range behind the tent, and I never saw a more broken country, or one more barren.  It appeared more open to the north-north-west, to which point our course will be directed to-morrow.

June 21.—­Fine mild weather:  at eight o’clock set forward on our journey.  The farther we proceed north-westerly, the more convinced I am that, for all the practical purposes of civilized man, the interior of this country westward of a certain meridian is uninhabitable, deprived as it is of wood, water, and grass.  With respect to water, it is quite impossible that any can be retained on such a soil as the country is composed of, and no watercourses, for the same reason, can be formed; for, like a sponge, it absorbs all the rain that falls, which, judging from every appearance, cannot be much.  The wandering native with his little family may find a precarious subsistence in the ruts with which the country abounds; but even he, with all the local knowledge which such a life must give him, is obliged to dig with immense labour little wells at the bottom of the hills to procure and preserve a necessary of life which is evidently not to be obtained by any other method.

We proceeded through a broken irregular country for nearly six miles, when the evident weakness of the horses made it highly imprudent to attempt to proceed farther.  We therefore halted under a high rocky hill, which was named Barrow’s Hill; and sent round in all directions to look for water.  The goodness of Providence came to our succour when we least expected it; an ample sufficiency for the people being found near the top of the hill in the hollow of a rock.

I ascended Barrow’s Hill, and from its summit had a very extensive prospect from the west north-west round to east-north-east.  To the north the country appeared perfectly level, though the horizon was skirted with distant hammocks, which could be but faintly distinguished.  To the north-east were some native’s fires; and a lofty detached mountain was named Mount Flinders:  a high range to the westward was named Macquarie’s Range, in honour of his excellency the Governor.