The Sun.
London, England, 1863-02-16 00:00:00

THE AUSTRALIAN CONTINENT,

Mr. Stuart, the South Australian explorer, has returned
to the capital of that colony, after being absent on an ex-
ploring expedition for upwards of 12 months. He has suc-
cessfully accomplished the object of his journey, and
brought the whole of his party back in good health. On
the late expedition the party, after leaving the depot at
Newcastle Water—the farthest point attained in 1861—
once more encountered the dense scrub which turned
back the explorers on that occasion. This scrubby
country, however, does not seem to have been found so
formidable as it appeared in the previou s year. He met
with abundance of water, and after six weeks' labour suc-
ceeded in escaping from the scrub on its northern side.
Its breadth, apparently, wsa not more than eighty or a
hundred miles, for the party emerged from it in lat. 16 deg.
40 min. and immediately four d themselves in a country de-
scribed as admirably adapted for pastoral and agricultural
settlement. An open ironbark forest presented itself, and
the whole appearance of the land indicated that it was of an
auriferous character. In lat. 16 deg. 50 min, almost on
the very verge of the scrub, Stuart came upon the head-
waters of a large river, and following it, and others which
he subsequently came upon, seawards, ho at last reached
the shores of Van Dieman's Gulf, on the extreme northern
coast, and not far from the abandoned settlement of Port
Essington. There on a promontory, from which the
Arafura Sea was seen, Stuart planted a flag, as he had be-
fore done on Central Mount Stuart, and his mission so far
achieved, commenced his journey homewards. His return
occupied about four months and a half, and thus the con-
tinent has been crossed and recrossed within a year. It is
not clear whether the rivers described by Stuart as large and
navigable are those already laid down in the maps, or
whether some of them at least are not new discoveries. We
have it now, however, on the authority of three explorers,
that the country north of the scrub of the 16th and 17th
parallels of latitude is a good land, desirable for settlement.
Though some of the vegetation was of a tropical character,
Stuart reports that less heat was experienced as the South
Australian border was left behind, and the " hot winds" of
that colony altogether ceased. The border land of the
neighbouring colony, indeed, he describes as the least
favourable to settlement of any he passed through. The
successive discoveries reported within the year now near its
end leave little more for 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 east of it is now
known, crossed as it is in every direction by the lines followed
by Burke and Wills, Walker, Landsborough, M'Kinlay,and
the earlier explorers. On the west Gregory has followed the
Victoria to its source, and later explorers, from Western
Australia, have all but united the settlement with the head
waters of that river, while Eyre has connected Adelaide and
Albany by the coast line. There is nothing left, therefore,
to excite the curiosity of the geographer, excepting the wide
expanse between the eastern boundary of Western Austra-
lia and Stuart's Track. Enterprising parties of settlers from
Swan River 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, and not unfur-
nished with water. It is not improbable, indeed, that the
utterly inhospitable country reported by Eyre as lying along
the shore of the great Bight will yet be 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, es we now know it, is vastly different from the
Australia of the geographers ten years ago. All that we
have since discovered has enhanced the value of this great
continent as a nursing mother of colonies—of nations in
me to come.---Melbourne „Argus.