Of running water among some very broken
and precipitous ranges, which rose almost perpendicularly from the
channel; in the latter, high ledges of a slaty rock stretched
occasionally quite across its bed, making it both difficult and dangerous
to get our horses along. In the vicinity of the water the grass was
tolerably good, but the declivities upon which it principally grew, were
steep and very stony.
Having hobbled the horses, I took my gun, and walked down the
watercourse, to a place where it forms a junction with a larger one, but
in neither could I find any more water. Upon my return, I found that the
native boy had caught an opossum in one of the trees near, which proved a
valuable addition to our scanty and unvaried fare. The latitude to-day
was 30 degrees 51 minutes S.
July 16. - Tracing down the watercourse we were encamped on, to the
junction before mentioned, I steered a little more to the north, to
ascend a high stony range, from which I hoped to obtain a view to the
eastward; but after considerable toil in climbing, and dragging our
horses over loose rolling stones, which put them constantly in danger of
falling back, I was not rewarded for the trouble I had taken:
