AUSTRALIAN EXPLOITATION.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 19, 13 January 1863, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN EXPLOITATION.

■era (Eroru the Argus). JH The *tory of Australian exploration rluring tlie "•^ fear ISoS closes with a l>rilliaut chapter. It (n opened in gloom anrl uncertainty. We had lost ipp ;he leaders of our first Victorian exploring exgjjji sedition, nnd grave anxieties held possession of the t )uhlic mind as to the fate of various searching '" , expeditions then in the interior. All those fears eS are now removed. "Walker, Landsborough, and :no M'Kinlnyhave returned in safety, and to their ma achievements, and the reserches of Kowitt -in the ggg! desert eountrv north, west and south of Cooper's _i Creek, we have now to add the brilliant successes of Stuart. More fortunate than Burke and Will*, 0 , be hn<t not only crossed from the southern to the il"S' jorthern shores of the Australian continent, and iet plHnted his flfijj on the heach of an inlet opening S fd to the Arafura Seu, but he has successfully retraced I \ bis steps, and though in broken health, lives to | ? * 0 pnjov the honors he has earned, and in all pro- , bability. to see the fruits of his discoveries S" gathered in his own time. Another, anrl the it greatest name of all, has therefore to be added to t S the roll of those who have made themselves £hj famous for all time as explorers of Australia p-ai The journey from which Stuart has returned is, yi in all respects, a remarkable one. As the achieve■JL merit of a handful of men, accomplished without "V loss, upon scanty resources, in face of difficulties '•f of many kinds, and within a limited space of time, irf! flic story deserves to be recorded amonsst itt" ! the. most adventurous and interesting of modern a i travel. On two previous occasions had the j^j gallant leader of the party been forced back by obstacles which could not be ov er--1 come. On tho iirst of these, in 1860, striking P^ right across the centre of the continent., he suc--01) ceeced in approaching the 18th degree of latitude, •eS£ w ben 'he scarcity of water, and the hostile attion i tude of the natives, compelled him to turn back. .|l In the following year, he was able to penetrate nearly two degrees farther north, thus overlapping "M be hend of the Gulf of Carpentaria, and ascer- . j IP™"? the character of the country lying between O^S »'c Victoria River nnd Gregory's track on the o n * e9t . and the track followed by the same explorer, no! V?^ V Leichhardt on his journey from Van F Diemen's Inlet, round the head of the Gulf of - r ar P entar ia into Queensland. There, however, iK» be was stopped by ft dense forest of scrub, in o f which water was difficult to find, and to croas e ds which baffled every effort the state of his supplies c &nd the health of hi 3 small party enabled him to f j, make. On his lasfc journey, heading: a more is§p UmerOUS and better provided band, Stuart crt old course, and he seems to have been ithHpavored with a more propitious season. Tho rains Algr at P°ured a sea of fresh water into the hollow jß^ntral land to the cast of his track, nnd drove V®L n ' n - T <0 tlie h'£ ner tyinff country on ite stern border, seem to have Oiled the creeks and |Iprater-holeß, and thus made abundant at every the first necessity in bush travelling. §|frhuß favored, nnd over-awing by his superior j|gitrength various tribes of natives who appear to igiave meditated offering opposition to his progress, HP>ib outward journey wus rapid, and ho reached Hjvithout inconvenience New Castle Water — his ad)BP ur <best point in 1861— on the edge of the scrubby ; »knd where he expected the real difficulties of his bfft° Urney to begin. This scrubby country, however, jJh" o^ not seem to have been found so formidable rS*£ it proved in the previous year. He met with ie iK dance of wat< *» and after sis weeks' labour, k ■?Hr u , oceec kd in escaping from the serb on its northern |FWe. It 9 breadth, apparently, lyas not more than

"ighty or n hundred miles, for the party emerged from "it in lat 16° 40', and immediately found themselves in a country described ns admirably adapted for pastoral and agricultural settlement. An open ironbark forest presented itself, and tho whole appearance of the land indicated thnt it; was of an auriferons character, la lat. 16° 60' almost on the very edge of the scrub, Stuart came Upon the headwaters of a large river, and following it, and others which ho subsequently came upon, seawards, ho at last reached the shores of Van D Semen's Gulf, on the extreme uoi thorn coast, aud not far from the abandoned settlement of Port Essingdon. There, on a promontory, From which the Arnfura Sea was se-efl, Stuart planted a flag, as he lrtid before done on Centra] Mount Stuart, and his mission bo far gloriously achieved, commenced his journey homewards. His return occupied about four months and a halt, and thus the continent has been crossed and re-erosaed within a year. We must wait for the publication of Stuart's dinry — already, it is said, in the hands of the printer — before we can determine with any degree of accuracy the nature of the descoveries he has ! raado in tho fur north. Arnhem's Land was the best known portion of tire northern continent. It was traversed by Gregory and Leachardt; it was carefully surveyed by Captain Stokes, who ascended many of its rivers ; and the settlers at Port Eaj sington had done somo liltlo exploring to widen I the knowledge they possessed of tho country near their own little colony. It is not clear whether the rivers described by Stuart as large and navigable aro those already laid down in the maps, or whether sorao of them aro not new discoveries. We have it now, however, on tho authority of threo explorers, that the country north of tho scrub, of the 16th and 17th parallels of latitude is a good laud desirabled for settlement. Stokes reported that the sea-coast was almost uninhabitable on account of the intolerable abundance of insect life. He recorded an observation with regard to the natives in proof of the fact, remarking that they habitually kept their eyes all but closed to preserve them "from the assaults of insect tormentors, nnd that thus an unpleasant deformity had been produced. Lai. dsborough found that tho ann'<vnnee experienced from insects on the Gulf of Carpentaria censed us soon as tho table land from which tho rivers descend was reached, and probably tho experience of Arnhem's Land will be tho same. This much is now beyond question, that tho land is fertile, not too heavily timbered, watered by noble rivers, well fed with rains, and probably auriterous. The climate seems to be such aa Europeans can well endure. Though somo of tho vegetation wns of a tropical character. Stuart reports that less heat was experienced as the. South Australian border was left behind, and the " hot winds " ot that colony altogether ceased. The border land of tho neighboring colony, indeed, he describes aa the least favourable to settlement of any he passed through. It may, therefore, bo conjectured that pastoral occupation will soon extend towards Central Mount Stuart, and that this explorer's report will give a tillip to the aspirations of those who are now preparing for organised adventures in colonisation on the northwest and northern coasts. It is no stretch of the imagination to suppose that, before long, the track Stuart has marked out will bo frequently travelled over. The successive discoveries reported within tho year bow near its end leave little more tor the explorer to do in Australia. Stuart's track intersects the country from south to north in its centre. The whole of the country to the cast of it is now known, crossed as it is in every direction by the lines followed by Burke and Wills, Walker, Landsborough, M'Kinlav, and the earlier explorers. On the west, Gregory' has followed the Victoria to its source, nnd hite/explorers trora Western Australia, have all but united the settlement with the head waters of that river, while Eyre has connected Adehiido nnd Albany by tho coast line. There is nothing left, therefore," to excite the curiosity of the geographer excepting the wide expanse between ! the eastern boundary of Western Australia and Stuart's track. Enterprising parties of settlers from tho Swan liiver settlement are gradually diminishing the area of this unknown land. So far as they have yet penetrated it, they have found it grassed and wooded, nnd not unfurnished with water. It is not improbable, indeed, that the j utterly inhospitable country reported by Eyre ns i lying along the shoie of the great Bight, will yet | bo found limited to a narrow belt just as the great central desert has resolved itself into some barren and stony land near Cooper's Creek, embraced almost entirely within the already settled districts. Australia, ns we now know it, is vastly different trom the Australia of the geographers ten years ago. All that we have since discovered has enhanced tho value of this great ! font incut as a nursing mother of colonies — ot j nations in time to come. And for this wo owe | honor to 'the memory of those who have perished in their work, and gratitude to those who have survived their labours.