BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 185 



be entitled to the same, — after which no other claim to the same He- 

 ward will be entertained, — and the other half upon satisfactory proof 

 being given to the Governor of the bond fide sale of the merchandise 

 in Europe, at an advance of not less than 20 per cent, upon the bond 

 fide actual cost of the article landed in Europe.- — -By his Excellency's 



command, 



E. W. Stafford. 



BOTANICAL INFORMATION 



Accomplishment of the Overland Journey across North Austra- 

 lia, from the entrance of the Victoria River (N. W. Australia) to 

 Brisbane, on the East Coast. 



Of this remarkable journey, so happily accomplished under the able 

 command of Mr. Surveyor Gregory, some notes, chiefly relating to 

 the Vegetation of the early portion of it, are given, with the ap- 

 probation of Mr. Gregory, from the pen of Dr. Mueller, Government 

 Botanist to the Expedition, at page 321 and following pages of our 

 last volume (vol. viii. for 1856). The letter containing that informa- 

 tion was dated "Main Camp, on the Victoria River, June 18, 1856," 

 just after the return of the party from that arduous excursion to the 

 interior, as far as lat. 20° 15' S. and long. 127° 45', where the desert, 

 the Salt Lake, and the utter absence of fresh-water, compelled the re- 

 turn to the Main Camp. Our present and some succeeding numbers 

 of this Miscellany will be found to be in part occupied by further in- 

 formation of the same nature, from Dr. Mueller, collected during the 

 rest of this remarkable journey. 



In the meanwhile a brief notice of that route may not be unaccept- 

 able to our readers. What follows is an extract, with the permission 

 of the Colonial Office, from a letter written by one of the party, Mr. 

 Elsley, to his father, J. B. Elsley, Esq., of the Bank of England, and 

 which, being the earliest authentic document received, that gentleman 

 transmitted to the Bight Honourable Mr. Secretary Labouchere. 



It is dated, at least the first part of it, " Bennes, Dawson Biver, lat. 

 24° S., long. 150°, November 25, 1856." Mr. Elsley states that his 

 previous letter to his father was dated June 1856 (same date as that 

 of Dr. Mueller al>ove alluded to), when on the eve of starting, one of 



VOL. IX. 



2 B 



