This time was occupied by an examination of the line of coast from Port Lincoln to Port Bell—an extent of about 230 miles. From Streaky Bay he crossed to the head of Spencer's Gulf, about 220 miles. He returned to Adelaide on the 15th of October. On this occasion, too, the expenses of the expedition (which was accompanied by ten horses and two drays) were defrayed entirely by Mr. Eyre.
The operations of 1840-41 may be regarded as one continuous expedition. It was commenced under the auspices of the local government, which contributed a donation of 1001., sundry stores, and the loan of two horses. The colonists of South Australia contributed five horses, and the payment of part of the expenses. Seven horses, and the very considerable excess of expenditure over the advances mentioned, were supplied from Mr. Eyre's private funds. All charts and plans of his routes were delivered up by Mr. Eyre to the Colonial government.
Mr. Eyre left Adelaide on the 18th of June, 1840, to attempt to penetrate into the interior of Australia. He advanced to Lake Torrens, and traced its shores for nearly 400 miles; but finding himself, from the anomalous conformation of that huge horseshoe quicksand, entangled in a cul-de-sac, and finding the country moreover arid and sterile, he crossed to Port Lincoln. He was thus the first to open a direct line of road to that harbour from the head of Spencer's Gulf, a distance of about 220 miles. From Port Lincoln, he, after being repeatedly baffled, but never discouraged, succeeded in tracing the whole line of coast westerly as far as King George's Sound, a distance of 1 300 miles.
Mr. Eyre's tracks, on the various expeditions now recapitulated, will be found laid down from the original tracings on Mr. Arrowsmith's last and excellent map of Australia. As a means of adding something more of interest and detail to this meagre outline, it has been judged advisable to subjoin Mr. Eyre's own accounts of his excursions, as given in his reports to government.
I. Operations of the Year 1839.
1. Excursion from Adelaide to the Murray and eastward as far as Spencer's Gulf.—"On the 1st of May I left Adelaide with a party of five individuals, exclusive of myself, and two horse teams with supplies calculated to last us nearly three months. For the first few days after leaving Adelaide, we passed through a considerable extent of fine and well watered country, crossing the chains of ponds named by Mr. Hill the Wakefield and the Hutt, to the latitude of about 33° 40', when the country assumed a more open character, presenting to us a considerable extent of high open downs well adapted for sheep, and abundantly watered by chains of ponds to the eastward and N.E. of the Hutt. The latter chain of ponds we traced in a northerly direction to its junction with a large water-course, which I named the 'Broughton,' near the parallel of
