360 



Dr. Neunaayer on a Scientific 



[May U, 



c. Field Party II. — Assistant leader, five mtn, and an aboriginal. 

 To this party &c. as above. 



4. The depot party remains in the depots which will successively be 

 formed in the course of the expedition. It will chiefly be employed in 

 keeping everything in repair and good order, in preparing provisions, and 

 propagating useful plants. The sick and convalescent are likewise to be 

 received into it. Systematic registration of meteorological and magnetical 

 phenomena is to be carried on by it under the im.mediate superintendence 

 of the assistant observer, 



5. The field parties will be employed in such a manner that one will be 

 examining the neighbourhood of the depot, say thirty miles round, while 

 the other will undertake the larger excursions on both sides of the main 

 route. In case of a removal of the depot in the direction of the main route, 

 all parties will have to cooperate. It is proposed, moreover, to employ 

 the field telegraph, as well for the promotion of the scientific objects as for 

 the more satisfactory cooperation of the whole party engaged. The per- 

 fection to v/hich ballooning has been brought by the zeal and energy of 

 Mr. Glaisher makes it not unlikely that it may be employed with advantage 

 in this expedition for the facilitation of the exploring and mapping of tracts 

 of country otherwise barely accessible. 



For m.eans of transport it is })roposed to employ fifty horses and eight or 

 ten camels, which latter animals have now been acclimatized in the colo- 

 nies, and show a special fitness and adaptation for Australian exploring 

 work. 



We may now add a few words as to the probable amount of expenditure 

 an expedition of this kind would involve, referring, however, for particulars 

 to the appendix. 



The following is an abstract of the probable expense : — 



1. Expenses previous to the organization of the expedition s6880 



2. Outfit of the expedition, exclusive of provisions 2,980 



3 . Salaries, wages, and contingencies for three years and six 



months 17,675 



Total expenditure ^21,535 



This estimate has been framed without regard to any expenses in connexion 

 with the publication of the results of the expedition. The sura may, at 

 first sight, appear somewhat large ; but when we com.e to take into consi- 

 deration the objects which the expedition professes to advance— when we 

 remember that, for the first time in the history of Australian exploration, 

 the various governments are to unite in support of a uniform and well- 

 planned scheme of exploration — when we consider that this sum is to be 

 distributed over a period of three years and a half — we cannot fail to per- 

 ceive the m.oderate amount of the sum proposed to be expended. 



It is proposed that the expenditure for this great scheme of exploration 

 of the vast interior of Australia, and the scientific researches contingent 



