508 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, M6. 



strenuous and praiseworthy efforts to discover the characteristics 

 of this great continent of which they are the stewards. All the Aus- 

 tralian States have for years had well-organized surveys at work, 

 and New South Wales and Victoria are now fairly well mapped, 

 and their features and resources known. 



One of the great episodes in Australian exploration is the terrible 

 disaster that befell the Burke and Wills expedition which, in 1860- 

 61, actually crossed the continent from Victoria by the Stony Desert 

 and the Mackinlay Range to the estuary of the Flinders Eiver in the 

 Gulf of Carpentaria ; the two leaders paid for their zeal with their 

 lives. Much more successful was Macdouall Stewart who, in 1862, 

 after two previous attempts, crossed the center of the continent from 

 Adelaide to Port Darwin along the route now occupied by the trans- 

 Australian telegraph line and the transcontinental railway now 

 under construction. He brought back good news of fine ranges of 

 hills, grassy plains, and fair supplies of water, and altogether gave 

 the Australians new hope of their continent. About the same time 

 two other expeditions crossed the continent from north to south and 

 south to north, in search of Burke and Wills, adding much to our 

 knowledge of Queensland. The Stony Desert of Sturt was found 

 flooded with water, and all around its borders were rich pasture 

 grounds. 



The general result of the many exploring expeditions in the 

 eastern half of Australia has been to show that while there are 

 great patches of desert there are extensive areas of excellent country 

 which would be as valuable as the finest land in Europe if only the 

 rainfall could be depended upon; but away from the coast 3^ou 

 can not expect 10 inches a year; occasionally there may be more, 

 but sometimes also much less. 



Still, about the western half of the continent nothing was known, 

 though in the north and northwest various expeditions had found 

 rivers and plateaus and hills, and the country in the immediate 

 neighborhood of Perth and along the west coast was fairly well 

 surveyed. The first successful attempt to cross from east to west 

 was made in 1873 by Col. Warburton, who, with his son, some 

 natives, a few Afghans, and a troop of camels, started fi'om the 

 center of the continent and crossing mainly between 20° and 22° 

 south latitude reached the De Gray River after terrible sufferings 

 through want of food and water. Nothing marked their dreary 

 way but a desert of sand hills and spinifex, with here and there 

 a scanty water hole. 



Since then the continent has been crossed and recrossed in all di- 

 rections by Forest, Giles, and their successors. The discovery of 

 gold in Western Australia led to further exploration of that terri- 

 tory and an influx of immigrants adding greatly to the scanty popu- 



