The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-07 00:00:00

PORT PHILLIP-PROGRESS OF

DISCOVERY.

( From the Port Phillip Herald.)
We have sincere gratification in announcing the ar•
rival in Melbourne of Count Streleski, the enterprising
pedestrian naturalist, and his friends and comlrag►►ons de
voyage, Messrs. Macarthur and Riley, from an explora-
tory tour through the terra incognita on the south-east
coast of New South Wales ; in the course of which they
have made several highly-important discoveries, and
have undergone excessive privations. The present
tour was undertaken by Count Streleski in continuation
of those geognostic and mineralogical researches which
had previously carried him over 2,000 miles within the
limits of the colony, and now induced him to start from
the Murrumbidgee, to explore the unknown, and by
white men untrodden territory lying between the Hone
and the south-eastern coast of New South Wal s. At
Elierslie, a station belonging to H. H. M tcarthu-, E A.,
M.C., the Count was joined by Mr. Jatees M learthur
and Mr. Riley, both of whom were eager to share with the
Count the toils and gratification of such an undertaking.
The party seems •to have started well provided with
provisions and pack-horses, and well mounted, except-
ing the Count, who having with him a considerable num-
ber of valuable instruments, necess .ry for the prose-
cution of his observations, which, on account of their
delicate construction, required the greatest care of car-
riage, preferred pursuing his journey on foot with his
budget on his back. From Ellers:ic the party de-
scended into the beautiful valley of the Hume, or
Murray, and followed its picturesque windings for
' about fifty miles. Here the travellers encamped ; the
Count and Mr. Macarthur ascended the Australian
Alps, and on the 12th of February, at noon, they
found themselves sitting on the most elevated peak
of Australia, at the height of 7,800 feet above the
level of the sea, beyond the reach of vegetation,
surrounded by perpetual snows, with a serene and
lucid sky above them, and below an unbroken view
over an extent of about 4,000 square miles. On the
summit of the Alps Count Streleski secured many
valuable meteorological and magnetic observations.
From the Snowy Range, retracing their steps for
about thirty miles to the westward, the party struck for
the south, through a broken and uninhabited country,
opening, as it were, by their first track, perhaps a future
communication with the Murray. In three days' jour-
ney from Oineo, in a south-east direction, the pony
crossed the dividing range, and in four days more found
themselves in a new and splendid country, clothed with
the richest pasture, and intersected with numerous
rivers—an immense inland lake and its ramified lagoons ;
in fact opening up in every direction fresh fields for the
operations of the settler, such as no other part of the
colony, which had come under tho notice of the travel-
lers, presented. The country, from latitude 37 deg.
10 min. S., assumed the most cheering and gratify-
ing aspect, but the rivers which beset the country
from N.W. to S.E. greatly retarded the progress of
the travellers, whose provisions now began to fail.
On the 6th of April it was determined to place all
hands on half-rations (a biscuit and a slice of bacon
peedav), but new difficulties and new delays soon rendered
it evident that even with this precautionary measure, it
would be impossible to make the stock of provisions
last out the journey. The greatest impediment the

travellers had to contend with was the exhausted state

of their horses ; each day saw one or other of the party
dismounted, to follow the Count on foot—but this, far
from removing, only increased the impediments to their
progress, for the ism unaccustomed to walk, like the
horses, began ta feel the effects of tfle wear and tear of
the journey. In this situation it became necessary for
the travellers to relinquish their original intention of
prosscuting their researches as far as Wilson's Promon-
tory, and thence commencing the exploration of the
sea coast, its inlets and outlets, and to take, instead
of the straight course for Western Port, the nearest
point whence fresh supplies could be obtained. The
open forests, plains, and valleys, through which the
party, if well supplied with provisions, might have tra-
velled at leisure, had nos, to be exchanged for a rocky
and mountainous p .th. through which a passage could
'not be effected without iiifiaite difficulty. The horses,
now completely exhausted, served more to retard than
to accelerate the progress of the travellers, and they
were finally obliged to abandon them in a valley of
tolerable pasture and well watered, about 75 miles
b lond Western Port. Here, also, they were forced to
leave the packs with the wearing men's apparel, and the
Count's mineralogical and botanical collections, taking
with them only their blankets and the residue of their bread,
which, notwithstanding the allowance hsd been greatly
res'ricted, did not last longer thsn four days from this time.
From this place the Count and his companions took, and
at all hazards maintained, a direct course zo Western Port,
in the hope of bringing their sufferings to a close as
speedily as possible; but. unfortunately, this course led
them for days together through a dense scrub, which it is
almost impossible to penetrate. The party was now in a
most deplorable condition. Messrs. Macarthur and Riley
and their attendants had become so exhausted as to be
unable to cope with the difficulties which beset their pro-
' gress. The Count, being more inured to the fatigue and
privations attendant upon a pedestrian journey through the
wilds of cur inhospitable interior, alone retained possession
of his strength, -and although burdenned with a load of in-
struments and papers of 45 pounds' weight, toatinued to
pioneer his exhausted companions day after day through
an almost impervious tea-tree scrub, closely interwoven ai h
climbing grasses, vines, willows, fern, and reeds. Here the
Count was to:be seen breaking a passage with his hands
and knees through the centre of the scrub ; there throw-
ing himself at full length among the dense underwood ;
and thus opening, by the weight of his body, a pathway
for his companions in distress. In this condition the
party, inch by inch, forced their way, the incessant rains
preventing them from taking rest by night or day. Their
provisions during the last eighteen days of their journey
consisted only of a very scanty supply of the native bear
or monkey, but far which, the only game the country
afforded, the travellers must have perished from utter
starvation. This food, which the travellers described
as somewhat of the toughest, was but scantily ohtained,
and the nutriment it afforded was altogether insufficient
for the maintenance of the health and strength necessary
for undergoing such fatigue. On the 22d day after they
had abandoned their horses, they came in sight of
Western Port, and the sensations which were created
by the first view of the water on which a small vessel
was riding at anchor, and the blue smoke curling
among the trees, may be more easily imagined than de-
scribed. It was upon Mr. Barry's tent the party had
stumbled, and to his hospitality and kind attention to
their wants they owe their recovery to health and vigour.

TIIE ROYAL CHEESE.—This prodigy has
arrived in London, and will be exhibited to the public on
Saturday next. The dairymen in the was. lolk upon it
as the greatest wonder in the world, and perhaps they
arc not far wrong. It is the greatest wonder mentioned
hi the history of cheeses, end would be of ten times more
use to a hungry family, ar even to a Royal household, than
that gigantic wonder, the Coiossus of Rhodes.
On Sunday morning, between five and six o'clock,
this town and neighbourhood were visited by a storm of
unusual violence. A strong wind from the north west,
accompanied by snow and sleet, had been bkowing during
the night, and the atmosphere the whole of the preceding
day had been thick and oppressive. A little after five on
Sunday morning the wind increased to a perfect hurricane,
rain and hail descended with inere-Able force, and in a
torrent-like body. The darkness became dense and im
penetrable. Lightning of a peculiarly lend and forked
description continued for some time incessant, and the
deafening roar of the thunder added not a lett, to the fear.
ful horrors of the scene. This singular tempest was,
however, happily of short duration. not cont nuing longer
than half an hour. We have not heard of any mischief
having attended,it in this neighbourhood, though there is no
doubt that other parts of the country shared in the visita-
, titan, and Pa effects may have been elsewhere worse than
we have here reason to deplore.—Cambridge Advertiser,
A SAILOR'S REFLECTIONS ON DEATH.--
Death is at all times solemn, but never so much so as at
sea A man dies on shore—his body remains with his
friends, and the " mourner go about the streets ;" but
when a man falls overboard at sea, and is lost, there is a
suddenness in the event, and a difficulty in realising it,
which give to it an air of awful mystery. A man dies on
shore—you follow his body to the grave, and a stone marks
the spot. You are often prepared for the event. There is
always some thing which helps you to realise it when it
happens, and to recal it when it has passed. A man is
shot down by your side in battle, and the mangled body re-
mans an object and a real evidence; but at sea the man is
near you, at your side—you hear his voice, and in an in
stant he is gone, and nothing but a vacancy shows his loss.
Then, too, at sea—to use a homely but expressive phrase
—you miss a man se much. A dozen men are shut up to-
gether in a little bark, upon the wide, wide sea, and for
months and months see no forms and hear no voices but
their o An, and one is taken suddenly from among them,
and they miss him at every turn. It is like losing a limb.
There are no new faces or new scenes to fill up the gap.
There is always an empty berth in the forecastle, and one
man wanting when the small night watch is mustered.
There is one less to take the wheel, and one less to lay out
with you upon the yard. You miss his form and the sound
of his voice, for habit had made them almost neeessary to
you, and each of your senses feels the loss. All these
things make such a death peculiarly solemn, and the effect
of it remains upon the crew for some time. There is more
kindness shown by the officers to the crew, and by the
crew to one another. There is more quietness and serious-
ness. The oath and the loud laugh are gone. Tho office:s
are more wwchful, and the crew go more carefully aloft.-
7'wo Years before the Mast.

A BISHOP DISGRACED.--I had an account
on Thursday of the judgment that was given that day at
Lambeth, when a sentence of deprivation was pronounced
against the Bishop of St. David's, upon three heads:
simony, extortion in taking exorbitant fees for his instru-
ments, and giving certificates to persons of their having
take:: the oaths when they had not, which in the canon law
is called forgery. Ho is, besides, condemned to pay
about 7001. for coats.—James's Court and Times of Wil-
liam

FOOTPADS.—.My Lord Dorset was set upon on
Saturday night by four or five footpads, as he came by
Tyburn. He says little of it himself, but I hear they took
from him to the value of fifty or sixty pounds, with his
gold George. Tbey seeing him fumbling in his pockets,
told Lim it was not honourable to sink upon them, and
they must search him; whereon he threw his money out of
the coach, and bid them pick it up. One of them told
him, if they did not know. him, they should use k;-
..
--JaMeeto Court and Mnfq of .al worse.
WT. -1,411 ...arti