366 MR. GREGORY— ROYAL AWARDS. [May 25, 1857. 



land in the latitude of Champion Bay, and, if possible, to penetrate 

 to the Gascoyne river, which falls into the northern part of Shark 

 Bay. Crossing the Moore and Arrowsmith rivers, he ascended the 

 Murchison, for 50 miles towards its source, and found some rich 

 soil on its banks. Determining everywhere his positions astro- 

 nomically, he proceeded to the affluents of that stream and made 

 ineffectual efforts to force his way through the dense brush or 

 scrub of the waterless, arid plains south of Shark Bay ; when the 

 exhaustion of his horses, great heat, and the sterile sandy soil 

 proved to him that the interior of the colony could only be explored 

 in the moist winter months. He therefore returned to Perth, 

 having travelled about 1500 miles without detecting any notable 

 quantity of good land, and having failed in reaching the Gascoyne 

 river, from the want of fresh water and the impenetrable thickets 

 of scrub. 



Most of the ofScers of the last and great expedition, which 

 we had so long advocated, having been sent from England to 

 Sydney, the expedition was there placed under the orders of Mr. 

 Gregory. Being properly fitted out under the directions of our 

 associate Sir William Denison, the Governor of New South 

 Wales, and proceeding thence by sea through Torres Strait and 

 along the north coast of the continent, it reached the great bay, 

 first made known to us by Capt. P. King in 1819, the eastern 

 gulf of which, or Queen Strait, and its stream the Victoria, were 

 explored by W^ickham and Stokes in 1839. 



Having ascended the Victoria, with the schooner Tom Tough, 

 as far as was practicable, Mr. Gregory established a camp on the 

 right bank of this stream, at about 80 miles from its mouth. With 

 his brother, Mr. H. Gregory, Mr. J. S. Wilson the geologist, and 

 Dr. Ferdinand Mueller the botanist, he then explored the Victoria 

 to Jasper Creek, determining the geological nature of the country, 

 and ascertaining that the river made a great southward bend. 

 Again taking with him his brother, and Dr. Mueller, together 

 with the artist, Mr. T. Baines, he marched southwards to ascer- 

 tain if the saline desert, which Sturt had discovered in proceed- 

 ing inland from the southern regions of Australia, and which he 

 had himself found to prevail in Western Australia, was also to be 

 met with in a journey southwards from the north coast. 



For this purpose he ascended the Victoria to its source, and 

 found the hilly or dividing range to have an altitude of 1660 feet 

 above the sea. Traversing this watershed, he descended by a 



