The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1904-02-17
AN EXPLORERS INGENUITY
Some Incidents in the Career of Fam
GUS Australian.

Some Incidents in the Career of . Fam
Gus Austrslisn.
There was q jubilation in Queensland
on the last birthday of the Grand Ola
Man" of that State. He is the Hon.
Augustus Charles Gregory, eighty
three years old, and resident OF Aus
tralia since he was ten. He will be
remembered, as one of the greatest ex-
plorers of the continent.
All maps Of Australia showing the
routes of the explorers who solved its
mysteries mark; the tracks of Gregory
through North Australia, through the
inner part of West Australia and along
the southern edge Of the desert. lie
brought to light important regions that
were fit for settlement and are now
among the prosperous parts of the Com
monwealth. thought it was long sup
posed they could not be turned to good
account.
During the many speeches in his
honor on his birthday much was said
about the remarkable inventive genius
which stood him in good stead at criti-
cal periods during his explorations.
Clocks were few and far between when
he went to Australia.
Young Gregory decided that his par
ents needed clock, and when he was
fourteen he made one out of such ma
terials as he could pick up, and it kept
good time for eight years. When he
was eighteen he built the first flour
mill in Queensland, forging all the iron
work for it from old bedsteads and ex-
ploring the mountains for millStones.
which he picked out and fashioned
with his own hands from the granite
near his home.
He was scarcely more than a boy
when he designed the apparatus for
the first revolving light on Rotnest ISL
and, where a lighthouse was needed
for the safety of shipping. His contriv-
ance worked without hitch for thirty.
five years, till it was replaced by a
larger one.
During his explorations he discovered
a bed Of iron ore in Western Australia,
fused some OF the metal in a black
smiths forge. turned it into steel, made
a psaknife blade Of it and mounted it
in q handle of kangaroo bone. Some
officials expressed doubts that it was
bona fde production, but Gregory was
able to prove that the steel was actu-
ally the product Of Western Australian
ore.
When his chrouometer got out Of or
der he was able 10 repair it in the des-
ert and continued the observations in
which it played an important part.
Not a few of his astronomical deter
limitations of geographic positions have
stood the test of later observations.
One day when he was travelling in
the vast desert plains he decided that
his provisions were too heavy for his
party to carry. aud yet every ounce of
food was needed. He set to work to
reduce the weight while preserving the
nutritire qualities.
He found that he could greatly re-
duce the weight Of his salt pork by
melting it. He also discovered by ex-
perimentation that the -four he turned
into biscuits weighed more than the
biscuits.
The bright idea occurred to him Of
making meat biscuits. So he mixed
-four with melted pork and tuned beef.
The biscuits turned out we'll and
weighed only absut onehalf as much
as the meat and Hour separately.
These are only few of the many
ways in which his ingenuity and ready
resource contributed to the complete
success OF his enterprises. He was for
many years Surveyor General or
Queensland. and in his peaceful old age
all Australia delights to honor him.
New York Sua.