Cowcowing had proved only a saline marsh similar to Lake Moore, the large lake which had haunted Gregory; the upper Murchison was not of a nature to invite further acquaintance or settlement; and the whole of the journey had been a disheartening round of daily struggles with a barren and waterless district, under the fiery sun of the southern summer.
Austin thought that eastward of his limit the country would improve; but subsequent explorations have not substantiated his supposition.

He had had singularly hard fortune to contend against.

After the serious loss he sustained by the poisoning of his horses, a risk that cannot be effectually warded off by the greatest care, he had been pitted against exceptionally dry country, covered with dense scrub and almost grassless, in which the men and horses must assuredly have lost their lives but for his dauntless and heroic conduct.
Austin afterwards settled in North Queensland, and followed the profession of mining surveyor.
19.2.SIR JOHN FORREST.
[Illustration.

John Forrest in 1874.] John Forrest, the explorer who ultimately succeeded in crossing the hitherto impassable desert of the western centre, now made his first essay.

An old rumour that the blacks had slain some white men and their horses on a salt lake in the interior was now revived, and gained some credence.