The great pastoral stretches of the upper course were left behind, and were succeeded by flat and inferior country intersected by sand-ridges.

The course of the river itself once more turned to the southward, and was but scantily watered.
Still Kennedy persevered until convinced that further progress must bring him to Sturt's furthest on Cooper's Creek.

The face of the land answered to Sturt's description; and grass and feed both beginning to fail him, Kennedy had to consider whether it was worth while risking the lives of his men to confirm what was practically a certainty.

At last vistas of the desert, described by Sturt with such terrible fidelity, appeared stretching away to the horizon, and Kennedy turned back, satisfied that the Victoria River and Cooper's Creek were one and the same stream.
It was now Kennedy's intention to make an excursion towards the Gulf of Carpentaria.

On his way down, in order to travel lighter, he had buried a large quantity of flour and sugar as well as his drays.