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hills) gradually round to N.W. and S.E., their direction near the Lake.[1] Captain Sturt discovered one oasis in this dreary desert of the interior, a river-like sheet of water which he called Cooper's Creek. This near latitude 27° 35' extended in a nearly east and west direction for about eighty miles, ending each way in arid sandy plains. In seasons of flood it is supposed to run to the west towards the Stony Desert and Lake Torrens, which are believed to be the outlets of the drainage of the interior in those rare seasons when there is anything to drain. Mitchell's river Victoria, which rising near Mount Pluto, part of the great Eastern Chain of Australia, runs boldly into the interior, full of water as if the commencement of a river to carry fertility and navigation into the heart of the country, was traced by Mr. Kennedy, till it gradually dwindled away in small creeks and came to an end in lat. 26° 20', long. 142° 20', barely 100 miles from the eastern extremity of Cooper's Creek. It is probable, therefore, that if there were water enough these two would be the same great river, which in that case would run from the inner flank of the great eastern chain, parallel to the Darling and the Murray, rising
- ↑ In speaking of Lake Torrens the reader must be again cautioned not to call up to his mind's eye a sheet of water. It is merely a depression below the level of the surrounding country, in which mud and occasional pools are found, and which in a damp country would be permanently full of water.
