"The Greater Part Of The Vast Area Contained In The Bed Of This Immense Lake, Is Certainly Dry On The

Surface, and consists of a mixture of sand and mud, of so soft and yielding a character, as to render

Perfectly ineffective all attempts either to cross it, or reach the edge of the water, which appears to exist at a distance of some miles from the outer margin. On one occasion only was I able to taste of its waters; in a small arm of the lake near the most north-westerly part of it, which I visited, and here the water was as salt as the sea. The lake on its eastern and southern sides, is bounded by a high sandy ridge, with salsolae and some brushwood growing upon it, but without any other vegetation. The other shores presented, as far as I could judge, a very similar appearance; and when I ascended several of the heights in Flinders range - from which the views were very extensive, and the opposite shores of the lake seemed to be distinctly visible - no rise or hill of any kind could ever be perceived, either to the west, the north, on the east; the whole region around appeared to be one vast, low, and dreary waste. One very high and prominent summit in this range, I have named Mount Serle; it is situated in 30 degrees 30 minutes south latitude, and about 139 degrees 10 minutes east longitude, and is the first point from which I obtained a view of Lake Torrens to the eastward of Flinders range, and discovered that I was hemmed in on every side by a barrier it was impossible to pass.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 182 of 914
Words from 50885 to 51168 of 254601