On account of the great heat, the expedition had to resort to travelling by night and resting by day.

The country was principally high sandy ridges, some so steep that it was not easy to find crossing-places.

They had to sacrifice a lot of valuable stores, personal effects, and a valuable collection of native curios, all chiefly on account of the shortness of water.
By this date the whole of the central portion of Australia was known, and the greater part of it mapped; while all the permanently-watered country had been rapidly utilised by the pastoralists..