The South Australian Naturalist. 79 



for traces of Leichhardt, the ill-fated explorer, who in 1848 

 had left a station in western Queensland, and with all his party- 

 had vanished like a cloud in a summer sky. The fate of the 

 lost explorer, who was a compatriot, an accomplished botanist, 

 anJl a medical man, appealed most strongly to Mueller's feel- 

 ings of pity. Mueller had, too, the additional stimulus of 

 travelling over new country, containing a wealth of botanical 

 treasures. Gregory's party went by sea along the coast of 

 Queensland, and then westward along the north of Australia, 

 until a landing was made at the mouth of the River Victoria. 

 The expedition followed the river to its source, when a small 

 part}^ of four, of which Mueller was one, hurried awaj^ to the 

 south-west, discovered Sturt Creek, and traced its course until 

 it was lost in the sterile country to the north-east of Western 

 Australia. The four then linked up with the main part}^, and 

 all made their way far inland from the coast across the country, 

 now known as the Northern Territory, to the Queensland 

 boundary. Keeping far south of the Gulf of Carpentaria, they 

 travelled until they struck the River Gilbert, when they veered 

 to the south-east, and gradually made their way to Brisbane, 

 which was reached at the close of 1856. They had been away 

 for sixteen months, had traversed 6,000 miles of new country, 

 and Mueller had gathered a representative collection of plants 

 and gained a profound knowledge of the botany of tropical 

 Australia. So far as the gathering of geographical information 

 was concerned, it was a most successful expedition, and had 

 been led by a consummate bushman, who had brought his party 

 through all perils without any of the tragic incidents that have 

 given several other expeditions a much larger space in history 

 books. Mueller was fortunate in being under such a leader as 

 Augustus Gregory. 



Some years later Mueller was the leader of two other much 

 less important expeditions that travelled over new country in 

 Western Australia. One examined the tract of land between 

 Albany and the Stirling Range, and the other went over 

 country between the Gascoyne and Murchison Rivers. In 1868 

 he was chosen to lead another expedition in Western Australia, 

 the main object of which was to search for remains of Leich- 

 hardt, which, it was alleged, had been found far out in the 

 interior of that great State. At the last moment, however, 

 Mueller was prevented from going, and in his place there went 

 as leader a young man, afterwards the well-known Lord Forrest. 

 Mueller's records, then, as an explorer are not inconsiderable, 

 and in themselves would alone have gained him an honoured 

 name. No other botanist, with perhaps the exception of Allan 

 Cunningham, explored so much of Australia. Nor did his 



