162 An Historical Review of the 



termination Lake ; no ranges to cheer us further on in our 

 difficult path, a country of unbroken barrenness before us. 



The distance between Mr. Gregory's furthest point and the 

 Great Bight was nearly 800 miles ; to the Fitzroy River 300 

 miles ; to the entrance of the Victoria Eiver 400 miles ; to the 

 settlements of Western Australia 950 miles ; and to Captain 

 Sturt's farthest position inland 700 miles ; but we approached 

 100 miles nearer to the last locality when at the termination of 

 Hooker's Creek, and came to within 450 miles of it, when 

 reaching afterwards the sources of the Nicholson. 



When leaving the Victoria River at the end of June, 1856, the 

 dry season had so far advanced, that Mr. Gregory's plan of 

 crossing Arnheims Land in an south-east direction became frus- 

 trated ; and only by a deviation to the north did we gain the 

 systems of water belonging to the Gulf of Carpentaria. Nor 

 could we postpone this journey till a more favourable season, as 

 many of the vessel's crew already suffered severely from scurvy. 

 Mr. Gregory reached at the end of August the Albert River, on 

 the southern extremity of the Gidf of Carpentaria, after having 

 determined the length of all the rivers which enter that basin from 

 S. W., none rising at a greater distance than 100 miles from the 

 the coast, none except the Albert being supplied by springs, all 

 conveying merely the drainage of a sterile sandstone-plateau, 

 which, contiguous to the table land of the same formation oc- 

 cupies such a vast extent of Australia, here, with an elevation 

 more frequently below than above 1000'. The extensive fiat 

 summits of this formation are true desert. 



Foreseeing the improbability of obtaining additional supplies 

 from our ill-repaired schooner, Mr. Gregory continued his 

 journey to the eastward, whilst water became exceedingly scarce, 

 in the scrubby tract of country which we traversed 



At a more favourable season of the year a passage over 

 the dividing table land from the sources of the Flinders or 

 Leichhardt River towards the Burdekin, would in all likelihood, 

 be practicable. But travelling south-east of the Gulf of Car- 

 pentaria during the month of September, we gained the waters 

 of the east coast only by a circuitous route into York's Penin- 

 sula, crossing Newcastle-range, in which granitic and porphy- 

 ritic rocks prevail from the sources of the Gilbert or perhaps 

 Van Dieman River, the ranges still at their highest point not 

 exceeding 2500'. Continuing our journey along the Burdekin 

 to the Belyando, Mr. Gregory proved the identity of the latter 

 river with the Suttor of Dr. Leichhardt. This journey from the 

 N. W. coast into the East Australian settlements was performed 



