horse died from the poisonous weed and exposure. As the remaining horses were unable to carry the baggage, much of it had to be abandoned. The party still pressed on through miserable country, and named the Sanford River after the then Colonial Secretary. On the 10th October Austin struck the Murchison River, the bed of which was dry. Five miles beyond the river a white plain was reached, covered with quartz stones and studded with red and white hills, having small peaks of felspar and red sandstone. Mount Narryer was christened, and on the 12th October, in latitude 26° 7' south and 115° 58' east, a cliff, composed of white sandstone, with white quartz pebbles embedded, surrounded by a broad belt of gneiss stones, was reached. But there was no water, and as the horses had been three days without a drink, the men were compelled to retreat to a native well twelve miles back. The march was resumed on the 14th, and after a terrible journey, during which several of the horses succumbed to fatigue and want of water, the struggling explorers arrived at Mount Welcome, named on account of the welcome supply of water and feed found there. They rested until the 24th, and a course was then steered towards the Gascoyne. On 29th October the explorers were only fifty miles from Sharks Bay and 100 miles from the Gascoyne River, where the relief vessel was awaiting them. But the return journey was a terrible experience. All baggage except the arms and ammunition had to be abandoned, and the men mounted the horses. The Geraldine mine was reached in an exhausted state on 20th November. Only four of the twenty-seven horses which left with the expedition survived the hardships and returned.
The result of this expedition was the discovery of extensive marshes in 118° east, between 27° and 28° south, flowing northwest; and four large rivers, or flood channels, in 117° east, between 27° 20' and 26° 40' south, of a fresh character, coming from the north-east, and shedding into the Murchison. Mr. Austin, in the concluding paragraph of his report, drew attention to the geological formation of the country to the eastward of the Murchison River, which, he said, had every appearance of being one of the finest goldfields in the world, thus foreshadowing the Murchison Goldfields. Made at the cost of great suffering, this may be considered an expedition of historical importance.
In 1854, Mr. A. C. Gregory received flattering proof of the esteem held out of the colony for his qualities as an explorer. It was desired by the English Government that a well-equipped expedition should thoroughly examine the northern part of the continent, and, from among Australian explorers, Mr. Gregory was offered the command. During the year he had compiled a valuable report on the northern mineral district, and also on the likelihood of gold being found in the Canning district. After hesitation, on account of ill-health, he decided to accept the proffered position. Mr. Drummond also received equal testimony in being offered the office of botanist, a position which he declined on the ground of advanced age. The party was to start out from the eastern coast, and late in 1854 Mr. A. C. Gregory, with his brother, left for Sydney. The expedition was voted a large sum by the English Government, and it was under their directorship and that of the Royal Geographical Society that the journey was made.
Mr. Gregory had eighteen companions, and among them H. C. Gregory (second in command), Dr. Von Mueller (botanist), J. S. Wilson (geologist), J. Rains (artist), J. R. Elsey (surgeon), and J. Flood (collector). On 12th August, 1855, he left Moreton Bay with two vessels, and went through Torres Straits to Treachery Bay, where with nine men he landed. One boat returned to Moreton Bay, and the other sailed to Victoria River, the proposed rendezvous. Gregory explored to the river without great difficulty, but was discomfited to find the vessel ashore in a most dangerous condition. She was, however, got off in safety. On 3rd January, 1856, the chief work of the explorers—known as the North Australian Expedition—was begun. Gregory traced the Victoria to its source in two forks, but was stopped in a southerly route by a sahara. He followed the northerly limit of this waste, and entered Western Australian territory. By pursuing a south-west course he discovered and named on 22nd February the Sturt Creek. Thence he went over low rocky hills, through forests of acacia, and across sandy deserts, to a hill, which he named Mount Wilson. The view therefrom discouraged him from seeking to further penetrate Western Australia—there was one unbounded waste of sand ridges and low rocky hills. He turned northwards, and among other interesting discoveries, found an old camp of the lost Leichardt. The ashes of a fire and the bones of goats were still visible. A large tree was marked L, with the letters D I G, but he found on scooping out the depression in the ground that whatever was placed there had been removed. Valuable explorations were afterwards made in the north of South Australia, and the great explorer led his party back to eastern settlement without mishap. Manifold advantages accrued to geographical and other sciences from this expedition, which paved the way for more extensive explorations through the burning interior of the continent.
Mr. Frank T. Gregory and Mr. S. Trigg were the next explorers to go out in Western Australia. Starting in March, 1857, from the mining settlement in the Murchison, they proceeded eastwards, and discovered promising tracts of pastoral and agricultural country. Their expedition proved the difficulty of forming a reliable opinion on inland country by one journey in a given direction. If the season be a wet one, much of this land is covered with splendid grasses; if it be a time of drought, the explorers view immense arid tracts.
Messrs. Gregory and Trigg explored about 180 miles of the Murchison River country. During their journey they passed over areas covered by Austin in 1854, which that gentleman described as desolate and almost devoid of pasturage. In 1857 the same country was grassed equal to the average in the Champion Bay district, and in some places the pasture was most luxuriant. For the first sixty miles on the south bank of the Murchison the soil was found to be indifferent, yet containing patches which produced grass at least sufficient for travelling flocks and herds. Then it seemed to improve, and was continuously grassy for a general width of half a mile. At Austin's Mount Welcome the verdure was luxuriant, being from two to three feet high, and from there to Mount Murchison the country was said to be "very beautiful," and the soil "superior" to any in the colony. Mount Murchison itself was described as an immense mass of quartz, with granite round the base. The country east and north appeared indifferent.
Messrs. Gregory and Trigg on the homeward journey kept on the north side of the river. Fine grassy country was found to extend to the base of hills four or five miles from the Murchison, and reaching west to the bend about forty miles from the Geraldine mines. The good land was flat, and the soil a red loam, which, when dry, was very open. Myriads of white ants infested these parts; every tree, living or dead, seemed to
