Jan. 12, 1857.] NORTH AUSTRALIAN EXPEDITION. 263 



lowing the expedition, and had brought home some additional information of 

 importance. It appeared to him that there was a lapse in the paragraph as to 

 no other ship but the * Torch ' having been in the Gulf of Carpentaria ; it 

 could not have been the intention of Lieut. Chimmo to say so, after the 

 voyages of Flinders and Stokes. 



Lieut. Chimmo replied that all former vessels had only coasted the Gulf, 

 without examining its centre. 



The President was afraid that without this explanation, it might be sup- 

 posed that the region had not been properly explored. 



Mk. John Crawfurd, f.r.g.s., had listened with great interest to Lieut. 

 Chimmo's spirited account. In his opinion it was a very correct one, and one 

 of sound judgment. In describing the country at the mouth of the Albert 

 Kiver as very arid, hot, and sterile, he showed it to be wholly unfit for colonisa- 

 tion by Europeans ; and therefore, he concluded, wholly unfit for a penal 

 settlement. This opinion, Mr. Crawfurd said, he had stated at a very early 

 period, and he thought Lieut. Chimmo's account most perfectly confirmed it. 



Dr. Hodgkin, f.r.g.s., inquired of Lieut. Chimmo whether the natives at 

 the mouth of the Albert Eiver resembled those of Southern Australia. He had 

 the opportunity of seeing two who were brought to England by accident by 

 Captain Strickland, about eighteen months ago. They were tall and slender, 

 and appeared to be friendly disposed. One of them died, and in taking the 

 other back Captain Strickland took considerable pains that he should convey 

 to his countrymen a friendly feeling towards the whites. It appeared that 

 Lieut. Chimmo did not find them well disposed. Dr. Hodgkin said he was 

 also struck with the fact of their being seen in a canoe that carried five or six 

 people ; the natives generally were so little competent to perform any work of 

 art that the construction of a canoe of this size indicated an advance which 

 rather surprised him. 



Lieut. Chimmo replied, that the natives at the head of the Gulf of Car- 

 jjentaria were the wildest people he ever met in his life. He was not favour- 

 ably impressed with the Australian race. On a previous occasion he took nine 

 of them from Percy Island to Sydney — the murderers of Mr. Strange, the Go- 

 vernment geographer. He had seen canoes at Percy Island, that carried five or 

 six fjersons. 



The President said, much as the Society had been interested in the success 

 of this expedition, and w-armly as they had instigated the Government to 

 pursue it, yet they had had no sort of control as to the conduct and progress of it. 

 The Society was not in any way responsible, farther than for recommending 

 certain gentlemen who had gone out as scientific members of the expedition, and 

 who had performed their duties admirably. 



3. Proposed Communication through North America, from Vancouver 

 Island to Hudson Bay, By Thomas Banister, Esq. 



The routes proposed by the Americans to the southward of the 49th 

 parallel of latitude, as contained in the ' Eeport of the Secretary of 

 War on the several Pacific Eailroad Explorations,' are five in num- 

 ber, and are enumerated in the following order, proceeding from 

 north to south : — First. The extreme northern route (Major Stevens's) 

 between the 47th and 49tli parallels of latitude, and striking the 

 Pacific at Puget Sound. Second. The route of the 41st parallel 

 (Mormon route) by the South Pass, or Great Salt Lake, to San 



