April 27, 1857.] NORTH AUSTRALIAN EXPEDITION. 34S 



The President said he held in his hand a letter from this distinguished 

 explorer himself. The Society would he delighted to know that the Council 

 had that day awarded one of its Gold Medals to Mr- Gregory, for there was 

 scarcely any exploration in his time which seemed more worthy of the com- 

 mendation of Geographers, than this exploit of Mr. Gregory. It would he 

 recollected that the expedition was really undertaken hy her Majesty's Govern- 

 ment at the suggestion of the Geographical Society. In the course of his 

 journey Mr. Gregory penetrated into the interior, in order to ascertain whether 

 it was a vast saline desert, and he tested it on two or three points before he 

 retraced his steps to the Victoria. He came to a valley which, according to 

 his letter, far surpassed the best parts of Western Australia, both in fertility 

 and extent, and also for settlement. 



Mr. J. Crawfurd, f.r.g.s., believed Mr. Gregory to be an admirable 

 explorer. He had told the whole truth, and that truth amounted to this 

 • — that the country he had explored was totally unfit for European settlements. 

 He could not see how any country lying between 11° and 16° of latitude could 

 be fit for the settlement of the Anglo-Saxon race. The heat must be intense. 

 The grassy plains would fatten bullocks, but who were to eat the bullocks 

 when they were fattened ? 



The President. — Mr. Gregory does not think so. 



Mr. Crawfurd. — Mr. Gregory knew less than he did of countries so near 

 the equator. He was perfectly certain the Anglo-Saxon race would never 

 settle there. 



Lieut. Chimmo, f.r.g.s., hoped these recent accounts would convince the 

 public of the worthlessness of the country about the Gulf of Carpentaria. 



The President. — That is quite another region, and differs from the valley 

 of the Victoria. 



Lieut. Chimmo read an extract or two from Mr. Gregory's communications 

 respecting the climate and soil of the Gulf of Carpentaria, and said it was 

 exceedingly gratifying to him that Mr. Gregory had corroborated the views 

 that he had, on more than one occasion expressed, that the country along the 

 Gulf of Carpentaria was entirely unfit for European occupation. 



Mr. Crawfurd observed that the Victoria seemed to be the only consider- 

 able stream that existed in that part of Australia. He placed no reliance on 

 the two to three hundred rivers that one gentleman spoke about, as falling into 

 the Gulf of Carpentaria. If they all ran in one channel and formed one river, 

 they would be more serviceable. With regard to the navigability of the 

 Victoria, the schooner only ascended it fifty miles. 



Mr. T. Saunders said, that if Mr. Gregory had pursued the same system 

 of investigation, at the Gulf of Carpentaria, which he had pursued on the 

 Victoria, his evidence as to the character of the country about the Gulf would 

 have been worth as much as his evidence respecting the Victoria. But instead 

 of following the streams up to their sources, as he had done with the Victoria, 

 whereby he discovered the nature of the country far into the interior, he, on 

 the Gulf, merely intersected the rivers a little distance farther towards the 

 interior, than Leichardt had already done. Had he pursued the courses of 

 the streams, he would probably have found all that Leichardt said he had 

 experienced, with respect to the salubrity of the climate and the fertility of the 

 soil in the Gulf of Carpentaria. 



The President, before adjourning the meeting, announced that a com- 

 munication had been received through the Foreign Office from our consul at 

 Tripoli, stating that he heard no confirmation of the report that Dr. Vogel, 

 the African traveller, had been assassinated. There was no foundation for the 

 statement except the African report, and he, for one, would not believe it 

 before it had been proved. 



