10 INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 



for Adelaide early in September of 1859, bound for the Far North, as 

 it was then called, our point of departure for the new country in the 

 North- West. The precise time of our departure from Adelaide was 

 fixed indelibly in my memory by the fact that I saw Tolmer's expedi- 

 tion start a few days before, ostensibly to cross the continent. I also 

 remember, in this connection, that we were told of two alternative 

 routes — one being by way of Port Augusta, Beda, and the Pernatty 

 Lagoon, to Stuart's Creek — in fact the way by which Babbage, Stuart, 

 and Warburton all went to the newly discovered country ; the other 

 was by the way of the Flinders Kange, and then to strike across from 

 Fortress Hill over the dry land lying between Lake Torrens and the 

 Lake Gregory of Babbage. After carefully considering all the informa- 

 tion which we had obtained we decided on the latter route, because 

 in the dry season then prevailing through the North it was quite un- 

 certain whether the former route was practicable. In this, as it turned 

 out, we were well advised, for when we returned to Adelaide from our 

 trip we learned that Tolmer's expedition had proved to be, as indeed 

 his own account of it shows, a complete fiasco, (t) 



Our route from Adelaide to about Mount Eemarkable lay mainly 

 through a l)eautiful pastoral country, in the flush of spring, after 

 bountiful rains ; but beyond that little (if any) rain appeared to have 

 fallen for many months — if not years ; in fact, we rode into the Flinders 

 Range country during a protracted drought. 



To us, coming from Victoria, where the mountains are forest clad, 

 the scenery of the Flinders Range was both novel and unexpected. I 

 well remember how I was struck by the weird appearance of some of 

 these mountains. Brown, rocky masses, devoid of timber, with pre- 

 cipitous cliffs, stratified in places, loomed through the desert haze of 

 a hot north wind. Recollections of such mountain masses were brought 

 vividly to mind when I saw similar bare rugged mountains, through 

 such a desert haze, when passing through the Gulf of Suez. The 

 atmosphere was often so clear that it was difficult to estimate distance ; 

 while at other times mirage produced such fantastic effects that one 

 felt as if in an enchanted land. 



What struck me, perhaps, as much as anything were the " gaps,"' 

 or ravines, often with precipitous rocky sides several hundred feet in 

 height. Such gaps are not only the channels of watercourses, but in 

 places serve as roads, leading from plains on the one side to plains on 

 the other side of a range. It was strange to us to see, where the tilted 

 strata formed the bed of the channel in such a ravine, that water came 

 (t) " Reminiscences, Alexander Tolmer, 1882." 



