166 An Historical Review of the 



instance, it was reserved to Grey's Land exploration to find the 

 Glenelg River in North "Western Australia, which had escaped 

 the scrutiny of the commander of H. M. S. Beagle. 



The employment exclusively of packhorses for conveyance, 

 will always ensure a rapid progress, and the straightest line for 

 a traveller. His starting-point should be established at the 

 remotest station previous to the rainy season, to recruit men and 

 animals before trials of the journey commence. The number 

 of the party should be very limited, not only as involving the 

 least delay, but also as on many places, water might be pro- 

 cured by them, where it would not be obtainable for a 

 large caravan, and as the great expense of providing for a large 

 party might be employed with more advantage for the longer 

 scrutiny of a larger tract of country by fewer individuals. The 

 survey should be exact, and independent of the use of chrono- 

 meters ; and above all, the positions of permanent waters should 

 be marked with scrupulous accuracy. On this may depend the 

 lives of those who may steer for the positions of a former ex- 

 plorer after the obliteration of his track, particularly in our 

 depressed interior where bearings are not always to be secured 

 Mechanical skill should be at command for the repair of instru- 

 ments, which on a journey through a wilderness are so liable to 

 be injured. 



The use of camels in our deserts has been recommended, but 

 when it is considered that much of the Australian interior is of 

 a stony, and not of a sandy nature, that these animals re- 

 quire a management of their own, and cannot roam about 

 by night to find food, being deprived only of their freedom by 

 the hobble chain — I still believe that horses will remain pre- 

 ferable, if kept shod constantly. 



The country to the westward and north-west of the subtro- 

 pical settlements of New South Wales is assigned to the new 

 exploration of Mr. Gregory, as that in which probably Dr. Leich- 

 hardt met his early fate. Should the enterprise be favoured by 

 the season on this occasion, we may depend on a wide survey 

 of North East Australia by that accurate explorer. 



From past experience we are, however, not entitled to anti- 

 cipate the existence of a well-watered country in that direc- 

 tion. This opinion receives additional weight when we con- 

 sider that none of Dr. Leichhardt's animals of burden returned 

 from the supposed locality of his destruction at the source of 

 the Maranoa, and we can but fear that the unfortunate traveller 

 advanced beyond the systems of the rivers of the east and north 

 coast, being under the impression of a much wider extent 



