At two we arrived at the base of a hill of considerable
magnitude, terminating westward in an abrupt perpendicular rock
from two hundred and fifty to three hundred feet high.
The country we
passed over was of the most miserable description; the last eight miles
without a blade of grass. The acacia brushes grow generally on a hard
and clayey soil evidently frequently covered with water, and I consider
that these plains or brushes are swamps or morasses in wet weather,
since they must receive all the water from the low ranges with which
they are generally circumscribed. It is a remarkable feature in the
hills of this country that their terminations are generally
perpendicular westward, rising from the lower grounds round from
south-west to north-west very gradually; their terminating rocky bluffs
are usually two or three hundred feet high. I include in these
observations not only the single detached hills, but the points of the
ranges. This hill was named Mount Aiton. The country having been
recently burnt, some good grass was found for the horses a little to the
south-west. We therefore stopped for the night, and ascended the face of
the mount for the purpose of looking around: a very large brown speckled
snake was killed about half way up, which, in the absence of fresh
provisions, was afterwards eaten by some of the party. On arriving at
the summit we had an extensive prospect in every direction; the country
was most generally level, but rose occasionally into gentle eminences
bounded by distant low ranges from the south south-west to the
north-west.
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