The Desert Had To Be Crossed, Or At Least Attempted, Even If It Had Been 1000 Miles In Extent; I Therefore Wasted No Time In Plunging Into It, Not Delaying To Encamp At This Last Rocky Reservoir.

After watering our camels we made our way for about four miles amongst the sandhills.

As we passed by, I noticed a solitary desert oak-tree, Casuarina decaisneana, and a number of the Australian grass-trees, Xanthorrhoea. The country was almost destitute of timber, except that upon the tops of the parallel lines of red sandhills, which mostly ran in a north-east and south-west direction, a few stunted specimens of the eucalypt, known as blood-wood or red gum existed. This tree grows to magnificent proportions in Queensland, and down the west coast from Fremantle, always in a watered region. Heaven only knows how it ever got here, or how it could grow on the tops of red sandhills. Having stopped to water our camels at the rocky cleft, our first day's march into the desert was only eleven miles. Our camp at night was in latitude 24 degrees 12' 22".

The next day all signs of rises, ridges, hills, or ranges, had disappeared behind the sandhills of the western horizon, and the solitary caravan was now launched into the desert, like a ship upon the ocean, with nothing but Providence and our latitude to depend upon, to enable us to reach the other side.

The following morning, Sunday, the 4th June, was remarkably warm, the thermometer not having descended during the night to less than 60 degrees, though only two mornings ago it was down to 18 degrees.

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