The Sun.
London, England, 1862-02-27 00:00:00

G ORY'S LAST EXPEDITION TO
THE NORTH-WEST COASi OF AUSTRALIA,
- -

(From the Melbourne Aqe.)
Perth, Nov. 18, 1861.

Sir,—Having had the satisfaction of personally
reporting to your excellency the safe arrival at Fre-
mantle, on the 9th inst., of the barque Dolphin,
with all the members of the exploring expedition
from N.W. Australia, I now have the honour to fur-
nish the following report of the general results of
the expedition for your excellency's information,
until such time as I am enabled to complete the
maps, journals, and other papers, containing more
fully the detailed operations of the expedition,
which are in course of preparation.
Leaving Champion Bay on May 2, we passad
North West Cape on the 7th, with light and vari-
able winds, and by the 10th arrived off Nickol Bay,
anchoring at night in the channel between Delambre
and Hauy Island.
The following day we entered the bay with an
E.S.E wind, stemming a strong ebb tide from the
S.W., and dropped anchor near the centre of it. The
afternoon of this day and the four following ones
were occupied in examiLing the bay and its shores
for fresh water and a suitable landingplace for the
horses.

An eligible spot having been at length discovered
in the S.W. corner of the bay, in a sandy cove, be-
hind which, at a distance of a few hundred yards,
was a well of tolerably good water and abundance
of green grass, the ship was removed to within three
miles of it, and the landing of the horses commenced
the same day, which was done by swimming them
off, two at a time, under the stern of the ship's cut-
ter—a very tedious process—Capt. Dixon not liking
to bring the vessel, at that time, nearer to the shore,
not knowing the prevailing winds at this season of

the year.
On arriving at the shore with the first pair of
horses, a serious accident occurred to Mr. Hearson,
the second mate of the Dolphin, resulting from the
negligence of the farrier of the expedition, who
had, notwithstanding my repeated caution to keep
a snapper on all the locks of the guns, placed his in
the boat without one ; in consequence of which, on
it being lifted out, the hammer was caught by a
lurch of the boat, and discharged a ball through the
mate's hips, inflicting a dangerous wound ; I am
happy to say, however, that, although he has had
no professional as.,istance, a good constitution, and
a litt:e knowledge I possessed of the treatment of
gun-shot wounds, has resulted in a perfect cure.
On account of strong easterly winds, and the
distance of the vessel from the shore, all the horses
were not landed till the 21st. Their shoeing,
weighing, and distributing packs, &c., gave us full
employ until the 24th, by which time the horses
had sufficiently recovered the effects of the voyage
to be fit for service.

Since our arrival at Nickol Bay, several parties
of natives had visited us. Their conduct at first
was apparently friendly, but on one of them being
detected attempting to spear a horse, he was fired
at, without, however, receiving any injury, although
having a very narrow escape ; since which an ami-
cable intercourse has been established with the tribe
immediately belonging to the vicinity of the bay,
and continued uninterrupted up to the time of our
departure.
Everything having been finally adjusted satis-
factorily, and Captain Dixon furnished with.written
instructions for his guidance during the absence of
the expedition, we took our departure, provided
with two months' rations, on 12 pack-horses ; the
party consisting of eight persons, being all moun-
ted; Mr. P. Walcott remaining with the ship in
charge of stores.

As our first object was to explore the country
between the coast and the Lyons River, our course
—having first been directed inland for 20 miles to
clear the marshes that extend for many miles to
the south-westward, from the head of Nickel Bay
—was turned to the S.W., to the meridian of Cape
Preston, with a view to cutting any rivers that
would lead us, with feed and water, to the south-
ward.

Passing over about 60 miles of a tolerably fair
open pasture country, intersected by numerous
small stream-beds, rising up in low stony ranges,
to the southward, we, on the 29th, in long. 116
deg. 4 min. E., lat. 21 deg., 18 min. S., struck a
river bed 200 yards wide, and of some depth, com-
ing from the southward and eastward, which was
subsequently named the Fortescue, after the Under
Secretary of State for the Colonies, under whose
auspices the expedition took its origin.
The Fortescue was followed up from the 30th of
May to the 11th June,on a general course of E.S.E.,
for about 180 miles. For the first 70 miles the river
ran through a hilly country of metamorphic sand-
stone, steep banks and very stony country hemming
us in on either side. Water was plentiful in pools,
which, as the dry season was far advanced, were
now only running from one to another in places ;
there was also an ample supply of grass for our
horses, but the stony nature of the country told very
severely on them, more than half having their shoes
forcibly torn from their feet in the clefts of the rocks.
From 70 miles upwards the character of the river
and adjoining country materially altered; to the
south, for eight or 10 miles extended plains of
clayey loam, covered for many miles together with
luxuriant grass, terminating in a bold and massive
range of hills, through which we were unable to
find a pass until reaching beyond the 118th degree
of E. longitude. These hills were named the Ilam-
mersly Range, after one of the most liberal pro-
moters of the expedition. Springs were plentiful
in the valley of the river; the broad-leaved mela-
leuca or cajeput, and palms with wide spreading
leaves eight to 10 feet long, grew, with other tro-
pical plants, along the grassy flats bordering deep
reaches of water, in which were caught fish of seve-
ral pounds weight each.
As we ascended the river, the pools became
smaller, and at a greater distance apart, while the
grassy plains extended in some directions beyond
the range of vision, and in others were only inter-
rupted occasionally by low stony ridges, yielding a
few acacia bushes and triodia.
On the 12th, after more than one unsuccessful
attempt, we at length succeeded in finding a pass
through the Hummersly Range to the southward,
in long. 118 deg. 4 m. E., lat. 22 deg. 15 m. S., at
an elevation of 2,000 feet above the sea, and again
found ourselves in extensive fertile plains, running
to the westward as far as the eye could reach. After
traversing these plains far some miles to the south-
ward we entered a tract of indifferent stony coun-
try, in which we had some difficulty in procuring
'water, although grasses were abundant on the
of most cf the ravines, and on some of the
less stony ridges.
13- the 21st June, the horses bad become so much
distressed With long and harassing marches, short-
ness of Water, and sore feet—all the spare shoes hav-
ing been expended and many of them now almost
shoeless—that I
now found it absolutely necessary
to form a depot
nael
lat. 22 deg. 58 rnp, in long. 117 deg, 10 m. E.,
28
r"se,.c. S., at which the weaker
horses could
tQ 'Et while I proceeded with a
flying party to complete
the examination of the un-
explored country between thisband the Lyons River.
On the 22d, accompanied
Messrs. M. Brown,
J. Harding, and E. Brocknje
with 7 horses, 8
days' rations, and 14 gallons or Brockman
Travellingr, I quitted the
at a
depot camp 'on a S.S.W. course.
much greater speed than it was
possiblethvgrith the
whole party; we were enabled to get
belt of poor dry stony country without meehgah. a
culty, and at 30 miles fell in with a large river
corning from the E.S.E. The ordinary channel
of
this river was only 100 yards wide, with reaehesof
water in it, lined with canes, but during the period
of the summer rains the water occupies a width of
from 400 to 800 yards, with a depth of from 40 to
60 feet, inundating the plains, in some places, for
more than a mite on either balk.
From the large extent of fine pasture land on
this river, the limits of which are at present un-
known, and probably extend from Exmouth Gulf
to more than a hundred miles to the westward of
where we visited it, it is likely to become, in a
179.3' few years, an important district of this Pro-
vince.t, have accordingly named it the " Ashbur-
on, ' after
thpevneblecal _Lerd presiding over the
e
Royal el
—eograan
countenance tSocieti, to whose. friendly
countenance
presassient
tnce am much indebted in
carrying, out
undertaking.
From the Ashl`narton southward, the country be.
,1