Report of Exploration Committee. xxi 



the colonists of Victoria, aided by a grant from the Legislature, will 

 enable the Philosophical Institute to take immediate steps to carry 

 out the object contemplated. 



Your Committee refer with pleasure to Mr. Gregory's letter, which 

 they have embodied in their report, and they are desirous to express 

 their acknowledgment of the valuable information which it has 

 afforded them. While Mr. Gregory, from long practical experience 

 as an explorer, takes a somewhat desponding view of the probable 

 nature of the unexplored country in Australia, and of the difficulties 

 and dangers that would have to be encountered in any attempt to 

 penetrate the great interior desert from east to west, your Committee 

 . are glad that he does not altogether dissuade them from making the 

 attempt. On the contrary, he suggests Moreton Bay as the most 

 eligible place under existing circumstances for fitting out an expe- 

 dition for this purpose, and recommends that a depot should be 

 formed at an advanced point on the Victoria River, from which a 

 light party might be pushed to the westward, shaping their course 

 to the northward of Sturt's furthest point ; thus strengthening the 

 opinions already adopted by your Committee on the best mode of 

 exploring the vast interior of this continent. 



The uncertainty and scarcity of water is the grand obstacle to all 

 future exploration ; but even if it should be impossible to penetrate 

 the desert to any great distance from the depot on the Victoria River, 

 from the total want of surface water, your Committee think it woidd 

 perhaps be practicable for a light party to discover some favorable 

 spot for securing permanent water from the tropical rains by arti- 

 ficial means, and thus to form more advanced outposts in the desert, 

 from which further explorations could be made, with the hope of 

 ultimately succeeding in penetrating through the whole continent from 

 east to west. 



However discouraging the exploration of this desert may appear, 

 your Committee attach great importance to the information commu- 

 nicated by Dr. Mueller, that there are in these inhospitable* regions 

 occasional heavy falls of rain, and the salt lake in latitude 20° south, 

 into which Sturt's Creek empties itself, although dry when discovered 

 by Mr. Gregory, indicates by its immense size (being thirty miles in 

 circumference) that a very large body of water must flow into it at 

 certain times. From the general nature of the surface, the rain-water 

 is very rapidly lost by absorption and evaporation ; but there are 

 reasons for believing that it will be possible in some grassy flats and 

 in some clay soils to secure for the purposes of outposts an artificial 

 supply of permanent water. 



Your Committee have had under their consideration a lengthy 

 communication from Mr. Belt, a member of the Institute, who pro- 

 poses to undertake alone an expedition from the Gulf of Carpentaria 

 to Adelaide. All that he requires is to be landed at the mouth of 



