Wide gravelly channel, but without surface water, the
drainage being entirely underground, and the country around comparatively
poor and valueless.
Chapter III.
SPRING HILL - AN AGED NATIVE DESERTED BY HIS TRIBE - RICH AND EXTENSIVE
PLAINS - SURPRISE A PARTY OF NATIVES - ROCKY RIVER - CRYSTAL BROOK - FLINDERS
RANGE - THE DEEP SPRING - MYALL PONDS - ROCKY WATER HOLES - DRY
WATERCOURSE - REACH THE DEPOT NEAR MOUNT ARDEN - PREPARE FOR LEAVING THE
PARTY - BLACK SWANS PASS TO THE NORTH - ARRIVAL OF THE WATERWITCH.
During the night the frost had been so severe, that we were obliged to
wait a little this morning for the sun to thaw the tent and tarpaulins
before they would bend to fold up. After starting, we proceeded across a
high barren open country, for about three miles on a W. N. W. course,
passing close under a peak connected with Campbell's range, which I named
Spring Hill, from the circumstance of a fine spring of water being found
about half way up it.
Not far from the spring I discovered a poor emaciated native, entirely
alone, without either food or fire, and evidently left by his tribe to
perish there; he was a very aged man, and from hardship and want was
reduced to a mere skeleton, how long he had been on the spot where we
found him I had no means of ascertaining, but probably for some time, as
life appeared to be fast ebbing away; he seemed almost unconscious of our
presence, and stared upon us with a vacant unmeaning gaze.
