March 14, 1859.] EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 157 



(f the unexplored portion of the country ; and my view is rendered still 

 further probable by tlie flights of fowls which Stuart mentions as going to the 

 westward over his head. 



Mr. Trelawny Saunders. — The discovery of the interval between Lake 

 Torrens and Lake Gregory should teach us to beware of assuming, from a 

 similarity of country at distant points, that the intervening space presents a 

 continuation of the same nature. But for a deduction of this kind, the dis- 

 coveries of Babbage and Stuart on the west of Lake Torrens might have been 

 forestalled by Eyre nearly 20 years ago. In penetrating at that time into the 

 country at the head of Spencer Gulf, Mr. Eyre found his course stopped at 

 four different points by the impenetrable basin of a salt lake ; and having 

 been thus repeatedly obstructed by identical features at no great distance apart, 

 he concluded that these features were continuoxis. Consequently a long lake 

 of horseshoe shape has ever since invariably appeared on maps under the name 

 of Lake Torrens. Mr. Herschel Babbage has, however, now discovered a 

 tract of practicable country extending nearly the whole distance between two 

 of the points reached by Mr. Eyre ; so that the length of Lake Torrens has 

 to be curtailed, and a separate basin has to be recognised under the name of 

 Lake Gregory. Into Lake Gregory falls a permanent stream containing fish, 

 and some others which Mr. Macdougall Stuart discovered during the admirable 

 exploration which he has just accomplished with such remarkable success. 

 A well-watered country was therefore opened to Eyre's research, if he had 

 steadily persisted in tracing the limits of the muddy barrier which had barred 

 his progress three times in this direction, instead of trusting to a tempting 

 generalization. 



The mode of argument which led to the horseshoe extension so long attri- 

 buted to Lake Torrens, on the basis of four distinct observations not very wide 

 apart, is now proposed to be adopted in the following case — one of equal or 

 greater importance. Captain Sturt was stopped by desert at the northernmost 

 point of his famous expedition into the interior from the south. Augustus 

 Gregory also found a similar desert at the southernmost point of his recent 

 journey from the mouth of the Victoria. Therefore it is supposed that the 

 interval of about 700 miles is also desert. It must be kept in mind, however, 

 that a few ranges of no greater height than that discovered by Stuart, and 

 named after him, would probably suffice to attract and retain the moisture which 

 the arid air of a stony or sandy plain might absorb before it could descend to 

 moisten the parched ground. Such ranges would render the connection be- 

 tween the north and south coasts practicable ; and Stuart has indicated the 

 extension northward and westward of those which he has lately made known, 

 while it may be considered highly probable that similar, features, like the 

 Stanley and Grey ranges, exist between the waters terminating in Cooper Creek 

 and the Gulf of Carpentaria. 



Mr. John Crawfurd, f.r.g.s. — I have been charged here more than once with 

 being a kind of objector-general ; to-night I have not a word to say in the sliape 

 of objection. I approve of the conduct of all the gentlemen who make these 

 most important discoveries ; the greatest praise is due to all of them. They 

 have conferred great obligations upon the colony itself, obligations upon 

 us who have been listening to what they have done, and obligations upon 

 the country at large. They are true Englishmen, countrymen of the dis- 

 coverers of the steam-engine, the locomotive, the electric telegraph, and of 

 the only people who could have performed the feats they have done. Cap- 

 tain Sturt, now here, but with whom I have not the good fortune to be 

 acquainted, is, according to my judgment, the greatest of all Australian dis- 

 coverers. We are heartily obhged to him for coming up here in his rather 

 delicate state of health : at the same time I am sorry to see him- here, for 

 another reason, that he ought to be employed in some high office elsewhere, 



