180 
Sir T. Mitcheil's Expedition into the 
New birds and new plants marked this out as an essentially 
different region from any 1 had previously explored ; and although 
I could not follow the river throughout its long course at 
that advanced season, 1 was convinced that its estuary was in the 
Gulf of Carpentaria : at all events, the country is open and well 
watered for a direct route thereto. That the rTver is the most 
important of Australia, increasing as it does by successive 
tributaries, and not a mere product of distant ranges, admits 
of no dispute; and the downs and plains of Central Australia, 
through which it flows, seem sufficient to supply the whole 
world with animal food. The natives are few and inoffensive. 1 
happened to surprise one tribe at a lagoon, who did not seem to 
be aware that such strangers were in that country : our number 
being so small, they seemed inclined to follow us, I crossed the 
river at the lowest point I reached, in a great southern bend, 
in long. 144° 34' E., lat. 24° 14' S., and from rising ground 
beyond the left bank I could trace its downward course far to the 
northward. I saw no callitris (pine of the colonists) in all 
that country ; but a range, showing sandstone cliff's, appeared to 
the southward, in long, about 145 J E., lat. 24° 30 S. The 
country to the northward of the river is, upon the whole, the 
best; yet in riding ninety miles due east from where I crossed the 
southern bend, I found plenty of water, and excellent grass ; 
a red gravel there approaches the river, throwing it off to the 
northward ; ranges, extending N. N. W., were occasionally 
visible from the country to the northward. 
The discovery of this river, and the country through which 
it flows, was more gratifying to me, after having been disappointed 
in the courses of so many others. The Cogoon, the Maranoa, 
the Warrego, the Salvator, the Claude, the Belyando, and the 
Nive, are nevertheless important rivers; and a thorough investiga¬ 
tion of the mountain ranges in which they originate, will enable 
me, I trust, to lay before your Excellency such a map of those 
parts of Australia as may greatly facilitate the immediate and 
permanent occupation of the country, and the extension through 
it of a thoroughfare to the Gulf of Carpentaria, to which the 
direct way is thus laid open. With a deep sense of gratitude to 
