Explorations in Australia / 1.-Explorations in search of Dr. Leichardt and party. 2.-From Perth to Adelaide, around the great Australian bight. 3.-From Champion Bay, across the desert to the telegraph and to Adelaide. With an appendix on the condition of Western Australia.

by Baron John Forrest Forrest

Mr. Ernest Giles, the explorer, also telegraphed, and I also received messages from the editors of the Register and Advertiser, Adelaide newspapers, congratulating me, and asking for a few particulars for publication in their papers. I complied with the request immediately, forwarding a brief narrative of the more remarkable incidents of our journey. On the 15th of October, the day after our arrival at Peake, I wrote, for the information of Governor Musgrave, a short account of the journey, and this, accompanied by a more detailed narrative, addressed to the Honourable Malcolm Fraser, Commissioner of Crown Lands at Perth, was, together with several private telegrams, forwarded free of charge by the South Australian Government, which also provided us with fresh horses and everything we required for our journey to Adelaide.

We left the Peake on the 4th of October, greatly refreshed by the rest and the kind treatment we had received from Mr. and Mrs. Blood, and Mr. Bagot, the owner of the cattle station.

Before I record the details of our journey and the receptions given us at every place on the route, I will quote the concluding remarks of my journal relative to the expedition:--

THE COUNTRY TRAVERSED.

I now beg to make a few remarks with reference to the character and capability of the country traversed; and through the kindness and courtesy of Baron Von Mueller, C.M.G., etc., Government Botanist of Victoria, and of Mr. R. Brough Smyth, Secretary for Mines of Victoria, I am enabled to annex reports upon the botanical and geological specimens collected on our journey.

The whole of the country, from the settled districts near Champion Bay to the head of the Murchison, is admirably suited for pastoral settlement, and in a very short time will be taken up and stocked; indeed, some already has been occupied.

From the head of the Murchison to the 129th meridian, the boundary of our colony, I do not think will ever be settled. Of course there are many grassy patches, such as at Windich Springs, the Weld Springs, all round Mount Moore, and other places; but they are so isolated, and of such extent, that it would never pay to stock them. The general character of this immense tract is a gently undulating spinifex desert--Festuca (Triodia) irritans, the spinifex of the desert explorers, but not the spinifex of science. It is lightly wooded with acacia and other small trees, and, except in a few creeks, there is a great absence of any large timber.

The prevailing rock, which crops out on the rises and often forms low cliffs, in which are receptacles for holding water, is LIGHT RED SANDSTONE (desert sandstone, tertiary). The only game found in the spinifex is a kangaroo rat, commonly called the wirrup; but in the grassy openings there are many kangaroos, and often emus, also a rat known as the wurrung. These animals are very good eating, and formed a valuable addition to our store department. At the permanent waters there were always myriads of bronze-winged pigeons, and also the white cockatoo with scarlet crest, called the chockalott; also the beaccoo, or slate-coloured parrot. Generally, however, with the exception of the crow and hawk, birds were not very numerous except round water. Whenever a sheet of water was found we found ducks, and in Lake Augusta swans and ducks were innumerable.

In bringing this report to a close it is not necessary to refer much to the reasons that induced me to keep more to the south than I originally intended. It will readily be seen, after perusing this journal, that it was a necessity, and that we could not get further north. It is a marvel to me that we got through at all; the season was an exceptionally dry one--in fact, a drought--our horses were of a very ordinary kind, and the country most wretched.

When it is remembered that a horse in poor condition and in warm weather cannot go much over a day without water, and when the sterility of the country is considered, it will be readily seen what a disadvantage one labours under without camels, which can go ten days without water. Well can I sympathize with Mr. Giles when he states in his journal: "All I coveted from my brother explorers was their camels, for what is a horse in such a region as this? He is not physically capable of enduring the terrors of this country." And so it is; horses are the noblest and most useful animals in the world, but they must have food and water regularly. The camel, on the other hand, is physically formed to travel over these desolate regions, and in Australia has been known to go twelve and fourteen days without water, carrying 300 pounds, and sometimes 400 pounds weight.