The Sun.
London, England, 1847-06-01 00:00:00

RAILWAY COMMITTEES,
HOUSE OF r,OMMONS -(YESTERDAY.)

GROUP 11.

Committee :net for the first time this morning in
Roam No. 22.
:LONDON AND PORTSMOUTH CD/RECT

DEVIATION LINE).

This Bill was to authorise a short deviation between
Gy!alming and Dorking.
Mr. Cuhitt, the engineer, was examined, and afterwards,
at the request of one of the Committee, the case was post-
ponod to see if am arrangement could not be come to with
the Guildford, Reailing, and Reigate Company, London and
Portsmouth Direct, and London and Brighton and South
Coast Amalgamation.
The Committee were occupied the remainder of the day
vith this ease.
The Committee adjourned at four o'clock.

GROUP VI.
WILTS, SOMERSET, AND WEYMOUTII
AMENDMENT (NO. II.)
(Continued from our Afternoon Edition of yesterday.)
Mr. Micholette, solicitor, residing at South Beverton,
aomersetshire ; A. Acland, Esq., sen of Sir T. D. Acland, Bart .
residing at Dorche*ter ; W. Stevens, Esq., merchant, of Brid-
port ; and Mr. Moore. Mayor of Exeter, gave evidence in
favour of the Great Western schemes.
The Committee adjourned tilt twelve to-morrow.

GROUP XXXIV.
ilia Committee met at twelve this day; Mr. F. Baring,
chairman.
The Committee decided that the preambles of the following
Bilk referred to them were proved :
Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway (Ashton
Canal Pdrchase).
Lond•m and N,tr, h-Western Railway (Lease and Purchase
of the Eluddersfl4l and Manchester Railway, Canal, &c.)
Manchester, Shetlield, and Lincolnshire Railway (Station
Approach in Manchester).
The preamble of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincoln-
shire R (Purchase of the Branch from Ashton-
ander-Lyme to 'Wdbarn) was not proved.

OLDHAM ILLLIA.NCE.
The report of the Commissioners upon this Bill had not
yet been received.
The Committee v/...s occupied the remainder of the day in
going through the causes of the Bill.

GROUP XXXV.
The Committee met at eleven, and, after hearing Mr.
Wrangham on the
EAST LANCASHIRE EXTENSIONS,
decided (without calling witnesses), that as lines of railway
were already in existence in the district to be supplied, that
farther accommodation was unnecessary.
The Committee then adjourned.

GROUP XXXVI.
MANCHESTER, AND STOVZPO&T
(:IHANCHE% &.O.)
This Committee was engaged all the day in hearing evi-
dence on behalf of this scheme.

GROUP XXXIX.
This Committee re-assembled this morning after the holi•
days in Room 23.
LEEDS A2tD THIUSIE. (LEEDS, DURHAM

AND NEWCASTLE EXTENSION).
The Committee were occupied the whole of the day with
local and general evidence in favour of this Bill.
The Committee adjourned at the usual hour.

UNOPPOSED BILLS COMMITTEE.
(Before Mr. GREENE, Chairman of Committees.)
The following Bills, being unopposed, received the sanction
of the Committee;—
St. Ives (Huntingdon Improvement).
Bingley Improvement.
Manchester and Lincoln Union Railway (Deviation).
Bac ,ingbam and Bracklev Junction Railway, and Oxford
and &etchley Junction Railway Company's Amalgama-
tion and Extension of Lines,
Birkenhead, Lancashire, and Cheshire Junction Railway, and
Chester and Birkenhead Railway (Purchase or Amalga-
mation ).
Birkenhead, Lancashire, and Cheshire Junction Railway
(Deviation of Main Line and Cheshire Branch, &c. )
Midland Railway (Leicester and Swannington Railway
Wineniw, Deviation and Branches, Enlargement of Leices-
ter Station, and extending powers as to Ibstock Branch).
Portadown and Dungannon Railway.
Manchester and Leeds Railway (Branch from the Hudders-
field and Sheffield Junction Railway to Barnsley, and Ex-
tension to Holrnfirth Branch).
Aberdeen and Great North of Scotland Railways (Amalga-
mation or Leasing).
Mast of Fife Railway (Nlarkinch Deviation).

DISCOVERY OF COALS IN
WESTERN AUSTRALIA.
We have great pleasure in laying the following in-
:eresaing narrative before our readers. By our friends
in the neighbourhood of Southwell, Farnsfield, 011erton,
and Mansfield, it will, we feel assured, be read with deep
interest and delight, when we inform them that the
Messrs. Gregory, who by their enterprising researches,
hVele been the fortunate discoverers of this great colonial
laeseing, are the sons of the late Joshua Gregory, Esq.,
'formerly of Southwell, and nephews of W. J. Gregory,
Esq., of 011erton, and Mrs. Shipman, Mansfield. The
particulars of the expedition are obtained by us partly
from private correspondence and partly through the
medium of the Perth (Western Australian) Gazette, and
may be embodied a, tellows:—
With a desire to penetrate into and make further dis-
coveries relative to the terra incognito of the vast tract
of country known as Western Australia, these scientific
and enterprising young men, consisting of Messrs.
Augustus, Francis, and Henry Gregory, voluntarily
undertook au expedition into the interior, trusting to
find, if not coal, at least some extent of good country,
which might be made available for the increasing flocks
mod herds of the settlement ; Government having for
this purpose granted them the use of the four survey
horses, they obtained some meal for the animals and a
present ief flour from Advocate General G. Moore, and
took theiir departure from Perth on the 4th of August
last, hoping that 17 having undertaken their journey
daring 1 he winter months they should suffer less from
want of water than during any other season.
Atte/. travelling for eleven drys, during which time
they repeatedly encountered groups of the natives, who
aPPeartad far more disposed to decatep than parley, they
carne 'in sight (on the 15th of August) of a range of
lofty 'bills, distant about forty miles. From the singular
appercance of theee hills, which rose abrutly from the
plain, with deeply serrated sides and a peculiar tint, it
was ervident that they belonged to a different geological
form ation to any the party had yet seen ; steering for
these, hills they passed over a beautiful grassy hill of
trap .rocks, the soil a dark brown loam; from the top
they observed an extensive lake, filling up nearly the
wholie of the valley for many miles to the north and
aorta east. Descending from this hill they pushed on
for di e lake, and reached its margin at one o'clock reef
of tlef t 16,h; however, proved nearly dry, and covered
with a thick crust of salt; the banks were very steep,
aearf y thirty feet high, and formed almost entirely 01
gypiuru. They halted for the night in a thick scrub
witheeut water.
Qt the 17th, having discovered some granite rocks
with water in them, they refreshed themselves and their
tired and hungry horses, and resumed their journey;
havirig• arrived A t the summit of the, highest peak, which
they reamed e Mount Jackson," they left their horses
and teseended through thick bushes, with w hich the
sides were clog -ly vovered, and after half an hour's
toil, they reached the summit—a mass of vairiegated
trap Buck, singularly stratified in thin layers of _red and
black e from this point the view was most extensive
end dielnehtful. Four similar ranges to the one they
were tem, upon, presented themselves, bearing re-
specti.vely east, south-south-east, north, and north-
east, :and being distant from about thirty 'to fifty
miles- The whole of the intermediate space was nearly
‘:(-4'i level plain of brown or glaring red sandy loam,
Fri meet • parts nearly bare, the rest covered wit.h thick
scrubs nor open forest ; a few native fires were -visible,
but nonce to the east of the line they were upon. "raving
desceneied Mount Jackson, the party returned to their
horses,. and went in pursuit of water, after sertrohirtg in
vain rot. nearly two days, they were reluctantly com-
pelled return in disappointment and exhieusti on to
their last watering place, where their thirsty horses at
once drag nk up nearly all the water that remained, thus
ohlieine the party to fall bsek upon the only water with
which tteey were acquainted, being not less than 30
miles in the rear.
From this time to the 24th the country, althi eugh of
an indifferent qiiality, was not dev. Ad of the pictu reaque;
the lakes in the valley to the right formed a p leasing
Contrast to the white chile which surrounded them,
broken sit they were into detached masses by tlee rich
foliage of the wild cypress. As they mounted eat dx suc-
cessive rats e, a tall, maj,eitic cliff, in the distance, w hich
they naysed " Mount Singleton," was ever and. anon
seen rearing its dsrk blue summit against the cler it sky,
and forming a beacon by which the now weary and tired
travellers were to keep their course.
Early in the morning of the 25th, they started .'Full of
hope, (expecting to reach M unt Singleton, dis tance
shunt twenty miles, before night ; after travelling eight
miles the ground became open, and on emerging from
mil
ferest of white gum trees they discovered a lake , three
es in width, which lay between themselves a nil the
high landa which skirt Mount Singleton. Althou, alt the
soil lee r.
awgzt was extremely soft they enters el the
lake, which
theear6ly dry ; with much labou • the
horsee got over
yarertd, two-and-a. half miles ; ',when
within three hundred
the opposite shot e, the
upper crust, consisting o' -irt.„
gypsum, gave
tt oh or four inches sf salt
; aftr
~,,ovrses sinking to e cheir
belies in mud and brine
rate ~,hem had proved unavailing;
tell:itattempts to ee ctri-
uite
ex hieusted by plunging and struggling e0,71,2es hours
ours,
to as a
last resource the travellers proceeded towoth site
bank and made two hurdles of tea trees, eaece;,)Pl
t, dve
feet lon', lashing them together with tether
:herw,
although so heavy that two could scarcel;( )01::e3ese ;
them across the mud, the party succeeded in
y
them, and la
alternately in front of the- horses ; the p ni m immedi at sty
appeared to know the use of
walkied from one to the other with the utmost cau it on,
In this manner, after five hours' toil, they succeede d in
retracing their steps, arriving on firm ground juat
tias it
grew dark. This was the first day they mounted h sir
horses', having walked at least 350 miles.
On the 2d September the y fell in with a par
of fog it
native.',, who were evidently taken
by surprise; the r . a
dressed them in the dieleet of the York district, tr ail ag
:
to make them understand that they were friends; p out
after staring for about a minute without speaking ti in;
walked cuff a short distance in a crouching attitude, a n,"
then took to their heels at fell speed. They were ni
ea,
rave their noolban or belt.ik
On the 9th the party discovered a considerable i 7vt 'r,
and traced it for son= miles, but as it tended too mu ah to
the southward they left it, turning to the weana
few miles, however, they again struck upon' j t,
;Tech enlarged. On the 10th they continued the centre e
-If the river, which, making a sudden turn, enter ed I
extensive valley two or three miles wide. Here the
pasture, consisting of rye grass and wild oats, wig