Nov. 9, 1857.] BETWEEN MOUNT SERLE AND LAKE TORRENS. 
29 
extremity. Carry on this base from London to Newcastle-on -Tyne, diminishing 
the breadth to twelve miles ; then turn that long straight line into something 
like a horse-shoe shape, and you have the area of what we know of Lake 
Torrens. Such an immense mass of liquid matter cannot be the product of 
local rains. But we know nothing of the north-west, and nothing more of the 
north than that which Captain Sturt and Mr. Goyder have pointed out. 
Though from the hills near Mount Serle the shores of both sides of the lake to 
the east and west are seen, to the north-west there is an unbounded horizon. 
Where that goes to no one knows : perhaps to a great internal drainage. 
Then there is another feature with which our present subject is connected 
— that “ stony valley,” which Sturt crossed, of about thirty miles in breadth, 
that appeared like the bed of a great watercourse. It cou'ld have been but 
recently under inundation, for there were immense tracts of mud without a 
blade of grass upon them. The inundation, too, must have been of fresh 
water, for fresh water pools were found in the vast valley. In such a climate, 
mud like that would in two or three years certainly produce herbage. 
That watercourse, stretching N.N.E. and S.S.W., had been recently 
inundated, probably by the tropical rains filling an immense reservoir of which 
we know nothing, but with which Sturt seemed to connect some native 
traditions. This watercourse, the wastepipe of a more northerly supply, coming 
down to a point not far from the newly-discovered fresh- water lake, is possibly 
the means of keeping it up. What a remarkable feature that is ! and how 
fraught with probabilities of more extraordinary country ! 
My strong persuasion is that, at no . very remote period of time, Spencer 
Gulf was the mouth of a great river that drained the whole of the western 
interior of Australia. As the Murray drains the eastern interior, and forms 
Lake Alexandrina, near Encounter Bay, so a great drainage from the west 
may account for Lake Torrens. As you sail up Spencer Gulf, it has all the 
appearance of an estuary quite up to what is called Port Augusta. The com- 
paratively narrow mouth near that locality becoming stopped up by the 
detritus brought down by the rivers, the water has extended itself into the 
basin that we now see filled, and, perhaps, a great deal farther, forming the 
immense evaporating pool of the waters of the interior. It is reported that at 
some seasons there is still a strong current from the lake into Spencer Gulf. 
If South Australia were allowed to extend its boundaries three degrees to 
the west and north, it might perchance take in a tract of country which would 
send rich produce down to Spencer Gulf. The immense mineral riches of 
the south-east also might have some repetition. Already has there been a 
copper deposit discovered near Mount Serle, which is said to promise to rival 
the Burra-Burra. 
It is true these are matters of speculation ; but if, on one side, we speculate 
on a desert, we may, on the other side, with such striking appearances, specu- 
late on good lands and a valuable country. Remember, in that country 
there are not only the tropical rains falling to the north, but there is the whole 
sweep of the vapours of the Southern Ocean coming with the prevailing winds 
from the south-west. I could mention strong atmospheric evidences from 
personal observation, in which Mr. Eyre, in his narrative, bears me out em- 
phatically — that there is a cool and well watered country to the northward of 
the Port Lincoln peninsula. Therefore, as I have already intimated, I heartily 
hope that the discoveries, of which we have just heard, will stimulate the Geo- 
graphical Society to exert its influence to push on these researches to the 
uttermost. 
I will only say one word more. We have seen great travellers stopped. 
Leichhardt we have lost ; Sturt was stopped ; Eyre was turned back to the 
coast ; Gregory was stopped ; Austin was stopped. We have tried to take 
the interior of Australia by assault. Now the late war has made us all tacti- 
