The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-24 00:00:00

Till? _EXPLORATION OF AUSTRALIA.

(Front the .Melbourne Argus.)
By the gallant exploit of Mr. Stuart and his two
companions, Mr. Kekwich and Mr. Head, we are
enabled by the present homeward mail to lay be-
fore the European students of geographical disco-
very the most successful results which have been
yet achieved in the history of Australian explora-
tion. Our information, through the precautions of
the Australian Government, which would be laugh-
able if they were not injurious to the interests of
science, is not so full as we could wish ; but such
as it is, coupled with the recent researches in
Western Australia it leaves no doubt that the vast
interior of this continent is neither a desert nor a
salt-marsh, but will shortly furnish not only safe
routes to the various fertile coasts,but also large tracts
of habitable land within itself. Mr. Stuart, in plant-
ing his flag in the centre of Australia, and in tra-
velling 1,300 miles due north of Adelaide, has been
the most successful of Australian explorers. His
journey is equivalent to crossing the continent
from south to north. We hastened to say so on
the mere receipt of a telegram from Adelaide
announcing these facts; and no future explorers
can deprive him of the high honour attached to the
exploit. Our Victorian expedition, now on its
way, cannot obliterate his route, or wipe Central
Mount Stuart off the map. The information which
was withheld could only be of service in showing
what valuable results would flow from his achieve-
ment—what future discoveries were based upon
his success. " Stuart crossed Australia" remains,
whether one or fifty more explorers cross it. That
they should cross it by the assistance of Mr. Stuart
is an additional honour which the South Australian
Government has thought fit to deprive him of.
In his route from Adelaide to lat. 18 deg. 47
min. and long. 134 deg., Mr. Stuart may be said to
have divided the continent into two pretty nearly
equal portions. If there was anything worthy to
be called a central desert, it would therefore have
been met. But no desert was seen ; and the most
forbidding features were three or four tracts of
scrub, the broadest not being more than 60 miles
across. Within a mile or so of the precise centre,
there is a high hill, from which ranges to the
north-east were visible. As he advanced more to I
the northward, he found himself " upon long
plains of alluvial soil, covered with grass," and came
upon creeks " having very large and long water-
holes." Singular to relate, the potato was found
to grow wild here, though the natives used its
apples, and apparently were ignorant of the vir-
tues of the tubers, Game also existed in plenty, and
the natives are represented as the strongest and best
fed hitherto met throughout the continent. *These
features warrant us in rejecting all previous con-
ceptions as to the interior of Australia, and leave
scarcely e. doubt but that in its maim. characteristics
it differs little from the coast districts.
From Western Australia, also, we have equally
encouraging accounts. A private exploring
party has penetrated to a distance of 100 miles
due east of York, finding a well-watered and
grassy country ; and the natives offered to lead
them 100 miles further in the same direction,
promising that they would bring them to a
splendid grassy country, with abundance of
horse-feed all the way. Such a distance, in
a direction due east from the coast, would place
the traveller directly to the north of Eyre's
desolate coast tract from Adelaide to King George's
Sound. This would lead us to infer that the fearful
region through which he passed was confined to
the coast, and that the country became more ha-
bitable to the north. Eyre had been turned
aside from a more northerly course by a thicket, the
extent of which he was unaware ; and his long and
unprecedeited journey, made through the most for-
bidding tract of land on the face of the earth, has
doubtless strengthened the belief in the existence
of a great central desert, which was supposed, on
the south coast, to:come down to the water's edge.
Of the vast consequences of the smallest infor-
mation, the slightest hint, in exploring unknown
regions, we have .numerous instances ; and Evre
himself, when he turned from the cheerless region
of Mount Hopeless, passed almost within a stone's
throw of permanent water and pasture.
With the assurance that there are no large deserts
to be crossed, the complete survey of the whole
continent may be safely accomplished, with the
assistance of one or two principal routes, or base
lines, if we may so speak. Mr. Stuart's track from
south to north undoubtedly furnishes one such base
line ; and if Mr. Burke will adopt a more westerly
direction, so as to fall in with the explorations of
the Brothers Gregory on the western coast, nothing
more would be wanting towards clearing up
all doubts as to the main features of the in-
terior. The recent researches of Messrs. Babbage,
Hack, Parry, and Major Warburton on the western
and northern confines of South Australia, when
considered in connection with the present disco-
veries of Mr. Stuart, render it more than probable
that the vast region lying between South Australia
and Western Australia—between Mr. Stuart's late
route and the western coast—is suitable, with per.
haps some exceptional districts, for immediate occu-
pation. There is reason to suppose that Eyre, in
forcing his way from Adelaide to Ling George's
Sound, unluckily hit on the most desolate of all ways
and that had he abandoned the seashore and
thrown himself on the interior, he would have
encountered fewer difficulties. Indeed, Eyre's ex-
pedition was undertaken on the supposition that
a fertile district existed to the north-west of
Adelaide ; and at a meeting of the Royal Geogra-
phical Society in 1858, we find Colonel Gawler,
Governor of South Australia during the period of
Eyre's explorations, stating the reasons for such a
belief, as principally, the constantly observed change
in the temperature of the wind from hot to cool and
moist, as it veered from north to west. " I was," he
continues, " so anxious that Mr. Eyre should take
that direction, that I pressed him almost unreason-
ably to it. But his heart, rendered hopeless by
Lake Torrons, was then set on the Swan River,
and he took that ever-memorable tremendous
journey." Nor were these symptoms confined to
Adelaide. Eyre himself, when half-way on his
immense journey, after he had rounded the Great
Bight, and endured the scorching blasts which met
him, was surprised to Ind the wind become cool
and moist as it shifted to the north ; and he writes :
" There was another thing connected with my pre-
sent position which equally surprised me, and
was quite inexplicable. Whilst engaged one
morning in rambling about the encampment as
far as I could venture away, I met with several
flights of a very large description of parrot,
quite unknown to me, coming apparently from the
north-east." There are therefore fair reasons
for supposing that the vast regions to the north of
Eyre's route contains fertile tracts. We believe
the Royal Geographical Society have for some time
entertained the proposal of completing the explo-
ration of the northwest coast from Shark's Bay to
the Fitzroy, on some such plan as was carried hat
in the expedition to the Victoria ; and now .
the interior of Australia shows signs of being !some
thug better than it was supposed to be, and that
the colonies are doing their fair share of
continen-
tal exploration, we trust that the society Will aid
us to close up this last
n Australia with the
gap in the coast line, con-
necting, as it would, Wester
luxuriant regions around the
Glenelg
and Prince
Regent's River.

WEATHER AND THE PARIS.

During yesterday the. banks of the various orna-
mental waters in the different Royal Parks were
crowded with members of the aristocracy and
gentry. The carriage drives in Hyde Park in
front of the Serpentine river were also crowded
with vehicles of every description. Several acci-
dents took place during the day, and had it not
baen for the praiseworthy exertions of the Royal
Humans Society's men several lives must have been
lost.
The thermometer, as registered by Negretti and
Zambra's patent glass, during Saturday night Ira!
21 deg., being 11 deg. below freezing point. Att
nine o'clock yesterday morning the glass st•°' 4.
n
21 deg., being 8 deg. of frost ; and even at noon it
rose no higher than 30 deg., being 2 as:'
__
was
freezing point. The barometer on era,
7 and at
29.83. Yesterday morning it was
five o'clock last night it was 29.7h2,..9.1the lowest
during the present year..
bY Mr. Supe-
The ice in each Park is describes. very bad and
rintendent Williams as being'
'-',lsnbseams immersed
dangerous state. Several
yesterday, but no fatal aePciedres:t took place.