The possibility of crossing Nuyt's Land may therefore be considered as settled, although it remains to be seen whether, by the sinking of Artesian wells, the discovery can be made of any use beyond the very important purpose of establishing a line of telegraphic communication between the two colonies.
M. Rossel relates, in his account of Admiral D'Entrecasteaux's survey of this arid coast, that a naturalist who accompanied the expedition went ashore on Nuyt's Land in search of curiosities, and straying too far was very near dying of thirst before he could rejoin his companions. Perhaps this French savant would afterwards have willingly subscribed to Shakespeare's opinion of the "uses of adversity," for he declared that the discovery which he made of a little stream of water, just as he had abandoned all hope of life, was strong testimony to his mind of the existence of God.
To the three decided proofs of colonial progress which I have now enumerated in the formation of the timber company, in the establishment of a whaler at Albany, and in the success of the overland expedition to Adelaide, the appointment of a Government geologist, about a year ago, must be added as a fourth. Up to the time of our return to England in the commencement of 1869 the existence of gold in Western Australia had been only surmised as probable, from the "minute specks" of it which, as I have said already, might be found in washing the sands in the beds of some of the water-courses, and no very vigorous measures had as yet been taken for the discovery of the metal in greater quantities. A great anxiety, however, to find gold had been aroused by the prospect of an ebbing
