Journals Of Expeditions Of Discovery Into Central Australia And Overland From Adelaide To King George's Sound In The Years 1840-1: Sent By The Colonists Of South Australia By Eyre, Edward John
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"I Arrived Here With My Party All Well, On The 3rd July Instant, And On
The 6th I Proceeded, Accompanied
By one of my native boys, on horseback,
to reconnoitre Lake Torrens and the country to the north of the
Depot,
leaving the party in camp to rest the horses and enable the overseer to
get up, from the head of Spencer's Gulf, the supplies kindly sent by His
Excellency the Governor in the WATERWITCH - her arrival having been
signalised the evening previous to my leaving. I arrived on the shores of
Lake Torrens the third day after leaving the depot, and have ascertained
that it is a basin of considerable magnitude, extending certainly over a
space varying in width from 15 to 20 miles, and with a length of from 40
to 50, from its southern extremity, to the most northerly part of it,
visible from a high summit in Flinders range, (about ninety miles north
of Mount Arden). The lake is girded with an outer ridge of sand, covered
with salsolaceous plants, and with saline crusts, shewing above the
ground at intervals. Its waters appear to extend over a considerable
surface, but they are, seemingly, shallow. I could not approach the
water, from the soft nature of that part of its bed, which is uncovered,
and which appeared to reach from three to four miles from the outer bank
to the water's edge. There can be no doubt, however, of its being very
salt, as that portion of its bed which lay exposed to our view was
thickly coated with pungent particles of salt.
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