They then returned to the well (Separation Well) after an absence of nine days, rested at the water five days, and then started to follow our tracks northward.

Afterwards one of their camels died, which obliged them to walk a great deal, and they became very weak and exhausted by the intense heat.

When writing he says that two days previously he attempted to follow their camels, which had strayed, but after walking half-a-mile he felt too weak to proceed and returned with difficulty.

There was at that time about two quarts of water remaining to them, and he did not think they could last long after that was finished." From the above extract from Wells's Journal, it is evident that the unfortunate men lost their lives through a mistake in judgment in returning to Separation Well, the straying away of their camels, and the merciless rays of the desert sun.
The account of this, the first expedition to cross the great sandy desert from south to north, confirms in every particular Warburton's experiences of the difficulties of exploration in that region.

The intense heat of the sun, and its radiation from the red sand-ridges, the heat from both sky and earth, render it nearly impossible to travel during day, the only time when a man can perceive those slight indications which may eventually lead him to water.