The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-24 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

When the long-expected rain fell, they pushed on for fiqy
miles to anachsr suitable halting.place, which was called
Park De*,?ot. From this depot Captain Sturt made two
attempis to reach the centre of the continent. He started,
acc(,mpanied by four of his party, advancing over a country
which resembled an ocean whose mighty billows, fifty or
sixty feet high, had become suddenly hardened into long
parallel ridges of solid sand. The abrupt termination of
this was succeeded at two hundred miles of what is now so
well known as Sturt's Stony Desert, to which frequent
allusion is made by Mr Stuart in his journals. After thirty
miles more, this stony desert ceased with equal abruptness
and was followed by a vast plain of ploughed mud, which
Captain Strut describes as a boundless ploughed field, on
which floods had settled and subsided." After advancing
two hundred miles beyond the Stony Desert, and to within
one hundred and fifty miles of the centre of the continent,
they were compelled to return to Park Depot, where they
arrived in a most exhausted condition.

That "centre," which the❑ appeared topless of
attainment by the heroic expediti-A under Capt.
Start, was, some eighteen years later, successfully
arrived at by one of the members of that earlier
expedition, John M‘Douall Stuart. We tran-
scribe from Mr. Stuart's journal the simply written
graphic account of his triumphant arrival on the
shore :

THE GOAL IS REACHED,
"Thursday, 24th July, Thring Creek, Entering the
Marsh.—Started at 4.70 course north. I hive taken this
course in order to make the sea coast, which I suppose to
be distant about eight miles and a half, as soon as possible
by this I hope to avoid the marsh, I shall travel along the
beach to the north of the Adelaide. 1 did not inform any
of the party, except Thring and Auld, that I was so near to
the sea, as I wished to give them a surprise on reaching it.
Proceeded through a light soil, slightly elevated, with a
little ironstone on the surface, the volcanic rock cropping
out occasionally; also some flats of black alluvial soil.
The timber much smaller and more like scrub, showing
that we are nearing the sea. At eight miles and a half
upon a broad valley of black alluvial acil, covered with long
grass; from this I can hear the wash of the sea. On the
other side of the valley, which is rather more than a quarter
of a mile wide, is growing a line of thick heavy bushes,
very dense, showing that to be the boundary of the beach.
Crossed the valley, and entered the scrub, which a
complete network of vines. Stapped the horses '„,) clear a
beach, and
o water of the Indian
tr
,re the party with the
wasw y gratified,
I delightedand advanced
a fewto byeahrodlsd
Ocean in Van Diemen Gulf, bef on t
°
horses knew anything of iv
in advance of me, ca, proximity. Thring, who rode
them all by surpr'..o, out " The sea 1" which so took
had to repeat and they were so astonished, that ho
ine call before they fully understood what was
meant- I'hen they immediately gave three long sind hearty
clieers. The beach is covered with soft blue mud, It being
ebb tide, I could see some distance; found it would be im-
poseible for me to take the horses along it; I therefore
kept them where I had halted them, and allowed half the
party to come on to the beach and gratify themselves by a
sight of the sea, while the other half remained to watch the
horses until their return. I dipped my feet, and washed
my face and hands in the sea, as I promised the late Gover-
nor Sir Richard McDonnell I would do if I reached it. The
mud has nearly covered all the shells; we got a few, how-
ever. I could see no sea-weed. There is a point of land
some distance off, bearing 709. After all the party had had
some time on the beach, at which they were much pleased
and gratified, they collected a few shells; I returned to the
valley, where I had my initials (J. M. D. S.) cut on a large
tree, as I did not intend to put up my flag until I arrived
at the mouth of the Adelaide. Proceeded, on a course of
329, along the valley; at one mile and a half, coming upon
a small creek, with running water, and the valley covered
with beautiful green grass, I have camped to give the
horses the benefit of it. Thus have I, through the instru-
mentality of Divine Providence, been led to accomplish the
great object of the expedition, and take the whole party
safely as witnesses to the fact, and through one of the finest
countries man could wish to behold—good to the coast, and
with a stream of running water within half a mile of the
sea.''

The enthralling interest of some of the perilous.
experiences recounted in these journals may be
readily surmised, and many readers will follow
with lively sympathy the weary path fist
trodden by these pioneers of civilisation. The book
is illustrated by excellent maps and some very
spirited illustrations.

A Diploniate's Xesidence in Persia. By Edward
B. Eastwick, F. 8.5., F.S.A., of the Middle Tem-
ple, late H.M. Charge d'Affaires at the Court of
Teheran. Two Vols. Smith, Elder, and Co.
Mr. Eastwick has given us a very amusing ac-
count of his experiences during a three years' resi.
deuce in Persia. The style is lively and animated,
perhaps occasionally evincing a little too much
effort to be entertaining. He tells us at the outset
that the great ignorance evinced by his friends and
countrymen as to the condition and the very where-
abouts of Persia distressed him beyond measure on
his first accepting his mission, and it waa to
his appreciation of thia ignorance that we are
indebted for his book. One acquaintance bid-
ding him farewell an his departure, exclaimed,

RECENT TRAVELS.
Explorations in Australia, The Journals of John
M'Douall Stuart, edited by W. Hardman, M.A.,
F.R.G.S., with maps and engravings. One Vol.
Pp. 510. Saunders, Otley, and Co.
This very interesting and valuable work contains
the original journals kept by Mr M'Douall Stuart
during his several persevering and adventurous ex-
plorations in Australia between the years 1858 and
1862, containing a particular account of that last
triumphant expedition when he fixed the centre
of the continent, having traversed it from sea to
sea. " Other explorers," says the editor, " had
merely seen the rise and fall of the tide in rivers,
boggy gtound and swamps intervening and cutting
cff all chance of ever seeing the sea. But Stuart
actually stood upon its shore end washed his hands
in its waters A pleasure dearly earned by perils
and privations of great severity—so great, indeed,
that for some time after the safe arrival of the party
at Adelaide the ife of the gallant leader was despaired
of. With the dangers and difficulties of an explorer's
life Mr. Stuart had been for many years familiar,
having gained his first experience under the guid
ance of that distinguished explorer, Clpt. Sturt,
whose expeditions he accompanied in the capacity
of draughtsman. As a specimen of the trials which
await the inquiring traveller in the Australian in-
terior, we read the following in reference to that
early expedition of Capt. Sturt :
Leaving Lake Torrens on the left, Captain Sturt and his
party pe4sed up the Murray and the Darling, until finding
that Cat:Hatter would carry him too far from the northern
coarse, which was the one he had marked out for himself,
he turned up a small tributary known to the natives as the
Williorara. The water of this stream fatlinghim, he pushed
on over a barren tract, until he suddenly cage upon a fruit-
ful and Well-watered slot, which he named the Rocky Glen.
In this picturesque Glen they were detained for six montt„,
during which time no rain fell, The heat of the was
so intense that every screw in their boxes Was f.lrawn and
,
all horn handles and combs split into fine lamina 3. The
lead dropped from their pencils, their filiger-nails became
as brittle as glass, and their hair, an;, the wool on their
sheep, ceased to grow. Scurvy at:tacked them all, and Mr
Poole, the second in commar.a, died. In order to avoid
the scorching rays of till sun, they had evacuated an
underground chamber, to which they retired during the
heat of the day.