- The weather broke up during the night, and the morning was
fair and pleasant.
However desirable it was that the horses should
remain another day in this valley to recruit, yet, in the present
unsettled state of the season, I was unwilling to lose an hour more than
was absolutely necessary. We here left all the spare horse-shoes, broken
axes, etc. in order to lighten the burden of the horses. This little
valley received the name of Peach Valley, from our having here planted
the last of our fruit-stones.
At eight we proceeded to the north-north-west, our course taking us over
a broken barren country; the hills composed of rocks and small stones,
the valleys and flats of sand. To the westward of our route the country
was covered with scrubs of the eucalyptus dumosa; these scrubs we
avoided, by keeping close along the base of Peel's range, where the
country had been lately burnt. It is somewhat singular that those scrubs
and brushes seldom if ever extend to the immediate base of the hills:
the washings from them rendered the soil somewhat better for two or
three hundred yards. As to water, we did not see the least signs of any
during the whole day. After proceeding between nine and ten miles, we
stopped for the evening on some burnt grass, which existed in sufficient
quantity; but, although we procured a few gallons of water for
ourselves, not all our researches could find a sufficiency for the
horses.
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