As we were now suffering a good deal from thirst we made a search in both directions along the bed, but although there were many pools (some of them being twelve or fourteen feet deep) we could not find the slightest indication of water having stood in them for a considerable time: in the bottom of one of the deepest of these pools was a native well, dug to the depth of about seven feet, but even at this distance below the surface we could see no signs whatever of water. There was much good land in the valley through which this watercourse wound, but all was barren and arid. In the course of the morning we had seen a flight of cockatoos coming from the eastward down the valley in which the bed of the river lay, which at the time made me imagine that water would be found in that direction in the interior, and the natives subsequently stated that such was the case, but our circumstances would not admit such a deviation from our course in a search which if unsuccessful would have proved fatal. DISTRESSING SEARCH FOR WATER. The sun had by this time become intensely hot, and the poor fellows grew faint for want of water, whilst it aggravated their sufferings that they stood upon the brink of a river, or wandered along its banks with eager piercing eyes, and an air of intense scrutinizing watchfulness peculiar to those who search for that on which their lives depend. One while they explored a shallow stony part of the bed, which was parched up and blackened by the fiery sun; their steps were slow and listless, and I could plainly see how faint, weak, and weary they were; the next minute another pool would be discerned ahead, the depth of which the eye could not at a distance reach; now they hurried on towards it with a dreadful look of eager anxiety, the pool was reached, the bottom seen, but, alas! no water; then they paused and looked one at the other with an air of utter despair. As long as they remained on the banks of this river bed a glimmering of hope remained; but I felt convinced from the general appearance of the country that there was not the slightest probability of our finding water there, and resolved therefore still to continue a direct route. When I gave this order the weak-minded quailed before it: they would rather have perished in wandering up and down those arid and inhospitable banks than have made a great effort and have torn themselves away from the vain and delusive hopes this watercourse held out to them.