March 22, 1858.] RECENT AUSTRALIAN EXPLORATIONS. 
191 
appeared permanent, and all of which are recorded in detail in the 
report, he travels along the line shown in the map. Freeling 
Range appeared to be in the middle of good grass country, and a 
very large spring is reported by the natives to be in its neighbour- 
hood. Grass was found to be growing to the very edge of the Salt 
Lake. From near Pagan Creek, which promises well as a perma- 
nent watering-place, the range begins to break off, and to run out 
into low hills towards Baxter Range. The horses had become so 
footsore that it was now a difficult task to examine the country 
properly, and there was no permanent water found between these 
last-named places. Mr. Hack spent several days in exploring this 
part, as he was very anxious to get a good route for stock into the 
new country he had found ; but at present a gap is left of some 
sixty-five to seventy miles without any known summer water. 
He feels assured, from native accounts, of the existence of a very 
extensive tract of well-watered country to the north, in which herds 
of wild cattle are reported to exist, but thinks there may be con- 
siderable difficulty in finding a good road to it without the assist- 
ance of black guides. — F. G. 
[The Government of South Australia have taken steps to pursue 
these discoveries by sending out an expedition, under the command 
of Mr. Babbage, to explore and survey the whole country between 
Lakes Gairdner and Torrens. The party is provisioned for eighteen 
months, and consists of Mr. Babbage as leader, Mr. Surveyor Harris 
as second in command, with 7 men, 3 drays, 1 tank cart, 16 horses, 
and 180 sheep. They proceed by steamer to the head of Spencer’s 
Gulf, and will commence their travelling as early as the season will 
permit them.] 
The President. — We thank the authorities for this communication, and 
also Mr. Gal ton for the abstract. Some of the papers have been partially 
printed by the local Legislature of South Australia, of which this is a very 
well condensed and perspicuous abstract. 
Colonel Gawler, f.r.g.s. — I have seen in the Adelaide newspapers sum- 
maries of the information Mr. Gallon has been so good as to read to us. I 
have looked over them with very close attention, and have been so deeply im- 
pressed with their importance that I have had extracts from them struck off, 
not knowing the subject would be brought on here, with the intention of 
laying them on the table. First of all, with regard to Captain Freeling’s eluci- 
dation or comment on Mr. Goyder’s expedition, it seems to me that the good 
people of Adelaide are right in saying that if Captain Freeling had gone r-ffc 
just after the autumnal rains, when Mr. Goyder was there, and that if Mr. 
Goyder had gone, as Captain Freeling did, after three months’ drought, that 
each would have seen the very reverse of what they now described. On the 
very plains of Adelaide, if a stranger were to come there just after the rains, 
he would have seen, as the early colonists did, a beautiful grassy country, and 
have been delighted to form a settlement there ; but if he were to come after 
three months’ summer heat, he would have said it is a bare brickfield, not 
worth the trouble of occupying. Such is the character of the land in South 
