After Our Meal We Found A Better Supply Of Water In A Creek About Two Miles Southward, Where There Was Both A Rock Reservoir And Sand Water. We Had Now Come About 130 Miles From Sladen Water, And Had Found Waters All The Way; Mount Olga Was Again In Sight.

The question was, is the water there permanent?

Digging would be of no avail there, it is all solid rock; either the water is procured on the surface or there is none. I made this trip to the east, not with any present intention of retreat, but to discover whether there was a line of waters to retreat upon, and to become acquainted with as much country as possible.

(ILLUSTRATION: MOUNT OLGA, FROM SIXTY MILES TO THE WEST.)

The sight of Mount Olga, and the thoughts of retreating to the east, acted like a spur to drive me farther to the west; we therefore turned our backs upon Mount Olga and the distant east. I named this gorge, where we found a good supply of water, Glen Robertson*, and the creek that comes from it, Casterton Creek. Mount Olga, as I said, bore nearly due east; its appearance from here, which we always called the farthest east, was most wonderful and grotesque. It seemed like five or six enormous pink hay-stacks, leaning for support against one another, with open cracks or fissures between, which came only about half-way down its face. I am sure this is one of the most extraordinary geographical features on the face of the earth, for, as I have said, it is composed of several enormous rounded stone shapes, like the backs of several monstrous kneeling pink elephants.

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