CHARACTER OF THE PENINSULA. 157 
from Port Lincoln to Streaky Bay, from Streaky 
Bay to the head of Spencer’s Gulf, and from the 
head of Spencer’s Gulf down to Port Lincoln again. 
In the course of these journeys, I had spared no toil 
nor exertion, to make my examination as complete 
and as useful as possible, though my labours were 
not rewarded by commensurate success. The great 
mass of the peninsula is barren, arid, and worthless ; 
and although Port Lincoln possesses a beautiful, 
secure, and capacious harbour, with a convenient 
and pretty site for a town, and immediately con- 
tiguous to which there exists some extent of fine 
and fertile soil, with several good grassy patches 
of country beyond ; yet it can never become a large 
or important place, in consequence of its complete 
isolation, except by water, from every other, and 
the limited nature of its own resources. 
For one or two large stock-holders, who wish to 
secure good grazing ground, and be apart from 
others, it might answer well, but even they would 
ordinarily labour under difficulties and disadvantages 
which would make their situation not at all desirable. 
The uncertainty and expense of procuring their 
supplies — of obtaining labour, and of finding a 
market for their surplus stock,* and the almost total 
* Pastoral settlers have left Port Lincoln in consequence 
of these disadvantages — but it is possible that a compara- 
tively large population may locate there, hereafter, should mi- 
neral resources be found out. Such discoveries are said to have 
been made, but I am not aware upon whose authority the report 
has become current. 
