O INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 



tained from the top of one of the hills of the Hermit Eange (?), that 

 to the west and north-west, where he expected to see Lake Torrens, 

 he saw no sign of a lake, nor anything except an extensive plain. As 

 he reached the Hermit Range — by a route on the west side of Lake 

 Torrens — it is manifestly impossible that he could have seen it to the 

 " west and north-west," since, if it existed at all in that latitude, 

 it must have been to the east or north-east of him. 



Babbage does not seem to have had a decided opinion on this 

 subject till he gave evidence before the Select Committee, when he 

 said, " Lake Torrens is part of Lake Gregory." 



There cannot be any doubt that it was Warburton who first formed 

 an opinion that there was a practicable passage across the supposed 

 horseshoe Lake Torrens, from the newly discovered north-west country. 

 This is shown clearly by the documentary evidence. On the 30th 

 September, when on his way to supersede Babbage, Warburton wrote 

 to Mr. Hamilton in Adelaide, suggesting that Corporal Burrt should 

 be instructed to proceed — about the 20th October — from the Mounted 

 Police Station at Angepina to Mount Nor' -West, and to make a smoke 

 signal, and keep a good lookout himself from the western side of the 

 range, (p) This was done, but it was only in the early part of November 

 that Warburton went across — leaving Stuart's Creek on the 8th, 

 arriving at the police station at Angepina on the 17th, and being in 

 Adelaide at the latest on the 10th of December, when he WTote to the 

 Commissioner of Crown Lands, (q) 



I think that Dr. Gregory has somewhat misunderstood this case, 

 for he says in his late work, " The Dead Heart of Australia," page 2.59, 

 " As soon as Babbage had gone south, Warburton retreated to the 

 nearest station to wait for the winter, and the expedition did nothing 

 more." No reference is given to the authority for this statement, 

 I have not been able to verify it, but the mistake which Dr. Gregory 

 has made is evidently due to the fact that he has not read the whole 

 of the evidence contained in the Parliamentary Papers, the substance 

 of which I give in the Appendix. 



The Commissioner of Crown Lands wrote to Warburton on the 

 11th December, 1858, as to his criticisms of Babbage. The postscript 

 to the letter asks Warburton as to the reasons which induced him to 

 return from the exploration. Warburton gives his reasons for not 

 " summering out," so that instead of retreating to the nearest 

 station to wait for the winter, he appears to have hurried back to 

 Adelaide. 



(p) Appendix, p. 37. (q) Appendix, p. 39. 



