DURING the period that has been covered in sketching these great enterprises there were many others of secondary importance. Some of them were only unimportant by comparison, but they were so numerous and full of incident that detailed reference to them is impossible. Two of the governors of the colony practically showed their interest in this work. Colonel Gawler, with characteristic energy, was anxious to see for himself what the interior was like, but his experience was sad and painful. Ascending the Murray to the northwest bend, he formed a camp there, and with two attendants proceeded northwards on horseback. The weather was hot, no water was to be found, the horses became exhausted, and on the return march one of them with a Mr. Bryan, either the governor’s secretary or friend, had to be left behind. The others reached the river with extreme difficulty, and sent out a relief party, but no trace of the unfortunate young gentleman was ever found. Mount Bryan, about twelve miles north of the Burra, is his only memorial. No other vice-regal exploration is recorded till twenty years afterwards, when Sir R. G. MacDonnell pushed as far northward as Mount Serle, and visited the Strangways and Loddon Springs. He took a great interest in the opening of the Murray by steam navigation, and accompanied Captain Cadell in the steamer "Albury" to Mount Murchison, six hundred miles beyond the Darling junction. The first person to employ "the ship of the desert," that was afterwards found so useful, was Mr. J. A. Horrocks, of Penworthan. In 1846 he started with the only camel then in the colony, intending to explore the country north of Lake Torrens. He made his way, through the Flinders Range by, a cleft with almost precipitous walls that is still known as Horrocks’ Pass, reached Eyre’s former depot near Mount Arden, but there accidentally shot himself, and died after five days of agony. Many parties were sent at various times into the north-west by capitalists to search for pastoral country, and by their means the region back of Streaky, Fowler’s, and Denial Bays, and along the shores of Lakes Gairdner, Torrens, and Eyre was thoroughly examined. In this way, Messrs. Oakden, Hulke, Hack, Dutton, Miller, Swinden, Campbell, and others greatly distinguished themselves. Colonel Egerton Warburton, when commissioner of police, on his visits to the outskirts of settlement, took every opportunity of penetrating as far as he could, and thus acquired knowledge and experience that proved of great value. In 1856 Mr. B. Herschel Babbage was commissioned to search in the far north for indications of gold and precious stones. He failed to find the coveted indications, but the three expeditions he conducted, and that of Warburton, who was sent out to recall him, added largely to the general stock of accurate information.

Mr. G. W. Goyder, as deputy surveyor-general, in 1857 followed a new line through the heart of the Flinders Range, and described its picturesqueness and grandeur in glowing terms. He was so fortunate, or unfortunate, as to visit Lake Torrens at an exceptional time. There was good pasture, and he was gratified by observing a true water horizon on the surface of the lake as far as the eye could reach. His report brought numerous applications for land, but when Colonel Freeling went to verify his observations he found that the former scene of barrenness and desolation had been restored. Mr. Goyder was not to blame for the accident of the season, though he greatly regretted the error into which he was thereby led. In 1887, through the floods from the north-east, the condition of things he found was fully repeated, and there was abundance of water everywhere.

Mention of his name suggests a reference to the excellent work he performed in the Northern Territory, when he not only explored but surveyed five hundred thousand acres of land, and fixed the site of its capital in about three months. He is an embodiment of Energy, and the vigour he has frequently displayed has occasioned the bestowal of that title upon him as a pleasant sobriquet. Though the construction of the telegraph line belongs to another department of this sketch, in itself it was a veritable work of exploration, in which Messrs. R. C. Patterson, G. McMinn, and many others who directed its course took part. When the expedition under Mr. Patterson was threatened with ruin through the unexampled tropical rains, Mr. C. Todd, C.M.G., the superintendent of telegraphs, proceeded to the scene of action, took the relief vessels up the Roper for about ninety miles, and finally travelled along the course of the line all the way to Adelaide. Several parties, including those led by the Hon. J. R. Parsons, Messrs. McMinn and Sergisson, Ross and Harvey, have still further explored the Northern Territory; while Lewis and Beresford, Winnecke, Barklay, Favenc, Lindsay, Mills, Chewings, the brothers John and Alexander Forrest from Western Australia, and others, have helped to fill up the map in the central and more southerly portions. The importance and difficulty of some of these expeditions may be gathered from such facts as that in 1883 Mr. Lindsay, starting from Palmerston, travelled over nineteen hundred miles in Arnhem Land, where his party had to live on horse flesh and depend on water-trees for water and about the same time, Mr. Winnecke, with camels, crossed waterless stages of one hundred and fifty miles, and mapped out forty thousand square miles of previously unknown country. The result of their efforts has been to greatly modify Captain Sturt’s too hasty generalisations as to the aridity and worthlessness of the interior. Permanent waters, creeks extending for hundreds upon hundreds of miles, mountain ranges of great extent, and vast grassy plains have been discovered and delineated. Though there are barren tracts, their area is proportionately far less than was once considered certain.

THERE is yet another series of explorations which demands a little more attention, and which has a character of its own. After the completion of the transcontinental telegraph line, it was quickly perceived that the stations along its course, being planted at the best-watered and most fertile places, would form excellent starting-points from which the unexplored immensity westward might be traversed. Of the explorers, in this region, Ernest Giles must be regarded as one of the foremost. Between 1872 and 1876 he conducted five expeditions. ‘Starting in the first instance from Chambers’ Pillar, he broke into the desert, and was finally arrested by the muddy flats of Lake Amadeus, just as earlier explorers had been by those of Lake Torrens. Returning to the charge again, and yet again, he eventually reached Perth, and returned by another route to the telegraph line at the Peake. On these journeys there was the usual experience of hardship. One stretch of three hundred and twenty-five miles, from water to water, occupied seventeen days. For a length of time the chief subsistence of the party was the eggs of the mallee pheasant. On one occasion, Giles and his man Gibson, when ninety-eight miles from camp on a flying trip, had to return because Gibson’s horse knocked up.

Thirty miles from some kegs they had planted, Giles sent on his man with their only horse, telling him, on reaching the kegs, to water and rest it for two hours, then to get on to the camp and send him relief. Giles toiled on till dark, was unable to sleep from thirst, reached the kegs at noon next day, and found two and a half gallons of water left. He was still sixty miles from more water and eighty from food. Gibson had missed the track, and was never heard of again; so no relief came to the lonely, starving, and weary man. He struggled on, often falling insensible, and seldom able to walk more than five miles a day. He preserved life on dried horseflesh eaten raw, for he could not afford water to cook it; but after two days it was all gone. Picking up a dying wallaby thrown from its mother’s pouch, he ate it raw. Finally, more dead than alive, he staggered into camp. This incident is given in detail as illustrating the self-denial, indomitable energy, and heroic endurance with which danger and death we c faced, and of which explorers’ narratives are full.

The expeditions under Mr. W. C. Gosse and Colonel Warburton started almost together, and both from Alice Springs, in 1874. That of the former penetrated six hundred miles westward across the boundary line of the colony, and explored sixty thousand square miles Of Country no white man had ever seen before. Colonel Warburton’s line was farther north, and his objective point the De Grey River on the west coast. He succeeded after one of the most gallant struggles ever made. The route led through seventeen hundred miles of desert, but counting experimental trips and return journeys, when they had to fall back on the nearest water, the distance travelled was at least four thousand miles. Scarcity of water and the scantiness of such supplies as were found in the native wells formed the chief difficulty. Camel after camel was sacrificed and eaten "right through," even to the viscera and skin —the latter after thirty-six hours boiling to make it soft enough to chew! At length the Oakover was reached, the last camel slain and two of the party were sent on to the nearest station for relief. It was one hundred and seventy miles away, and, while waiting, those left behind were on the verge of death. There were fish in the river, but they could not catch them; wild ducks flew near, but they had no strength to crawl after them. Hope was almost gone when the rescue came, but Colonel Warburton had permanently lost the sight of one eye, and it was long before his strength returned. The tracks of McKinlay and Stuart are across the continent from south to north, and those of these western explorers from different points on the line traced by the latter to the western coast. Thus a number of lines have been drawn across the great blank which the map of the interior used to show, and the general characteristics and the main features of the topography of the country have been ascertained.

THIS Summary of South Australian inland exploration cannot be closed without special reference to the public spirit and almost profuse liberality of its promoters. A great number of capitalists, and especially those who have invested in pastoral pursuits, have nobly sustained every enterprising mail. Honourable mention should be made of the Messrs. Chambers and Finke, of S. W. W. Hughes, and Sir Thomas Elder, G. C. M. G. The catalogue of names, if all were referred to, would be long, and selection is not easy, but the highest place will be unanimously accorded to the last-mentioned. His extensive camel herds have enabled him to do more than any one else, and he has done it right royally. The beasts of burden he has placed at the disposal of the government, the expeditions he has personally fitted out, and the help he has rendered in other ways have made the work of exploration possible, as it could not otherwise have been. If for no other reason, on this account alone he is fully entitled to the high distinction he has received.

As to the explorers themselves —their courage, patience, unflinching performance of duty, loyal devotion to each other in times of danger, and uncomplaining endurance of hardships, constitute a record of sublime heroism that is enough to make any colonist proud of his countrymen and of his race. The value of their services cannot be estimated, and though they have been crowned with honour and liberal rewards, they have never been overpaid.

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