(Port Jackson)."]
September 1. - This morning I sent the man back to the depot with the
pack-horse, with orders to the overseer to move back the party as rapidly
as possible towards Mount Arden, that by taking advantage of the rain we
might make a short route through the plains, and avoid the necessity of
going up among the rugged and stony watercourses of the hills.
This retrograde movement was rendered absolutely necessary from our
present position, for since we had wound through the hills to the north,
and come out upon the open plains, I saw that Flinders range had
terminated, and I now only wished to trace its northern termination so
far east as to enable me to see round it to the southward, as well as to
ascertain the character and appearance of the country to the north and to
the east; as soon therefore as the man had left, I proceeded at a course
of E. 35 degrees N. for a low and very distant elevation, apparently the
last of the hills to the eastward, this I named Mount Distance, for it
deceived us greatly as to the distance we were from it.
In passing through the plains, which were yesterday so arid and dry, I
found immense pools, nay almost large reaches of water lodged in the
hollows, and in which boats might have floated. Such was the result of
only an hour or two's rain, whilst the ground itself, formerly so hard,
was soft and boggy in the extreme, rendering progress much slower and
more fatiguing to the horses than it otherwise would have been. By
steadily persevering we made a stage of thirty-five miles, but were
obliged to encamp at night some miles short of the little height I had
been steering for.
During our ride we passed several dry watercourses at five, ten,
twenty-five, thirty, and thirty-five miles from our last encampment. The
last we halted upon with good feed for the horses, and rainwater lodged
everywhere. All these watercourses took their course to the north,
emptying and losing themselves in the plains. In the evening heavy
showers again fell, and the night set in very dark.
September 2. - After travelling seven miles we ascended Mount Distance,
and from it I could see that the hills now bore S. and S.E. and were
getting much lower, so that we were rapidly rounding their northern
extremity. To the north and north-east were seen only broken fragments of
table lands, similar to what I found near the lake to the north-west; the
lake itself, however, was nowhere visible, and I saw that I should have
another day's hard riding before I could satisfactorily determine its
direction. Upon descending I steered for a distant low haycock-like peak
in the midst of one of the table-topped fragments; from this rise I
expected the view would be decisive, and I named it Mount Hopeless.
