The Opelousas courier., 1905-11-11
AN EXPLORERS INGENUITY
Some Incidents In the Career of q Fam
QES Australian.

Con,e Incidents In the career OF % RAM
GUS Australian.
There was a jubilation in Queensland
on the last birthday of the Grand Old
Man" of that State. He is the Hon.
Augustus Charles Gregory, eighty
three years old, and a resident of Aus
tralia since he was ten. He will be
remembered as Il of the greatest en-
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. He
brought to light important regions that
were fit for settlement and are now
among the prosperous parts of the Com.
m~onwealth, thought it was long sup
posed they could not be turned to good
account.
During the many speeches in his
honor OH his birthday much was said
about the remarkable inventive genius
which stood him in good stead at crit
cal periods during his explorations.
Clocks were few and far between wher
he went to Australia.
Young Gregory decided that his oar,
ents needed d 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 -four
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 WI 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.
worked without a hitch for thirty.
five years, till it was replaced by a
one
During his explorations he discovered
a bed of iron ore in Western Australia,
fused some Of the metal in a black.
forge, turned it into steel, made
penknife blade of it and mounted it
a handle Of kangaroo bone. Some
officials expressed doubts that it was a
bona fide production, but Gregory was
able to prove that the steel was actu.
ally the product of Western Australian
)re.
When his thermometer got out of or.
Ter he was able to repair it in the des.
srt and continued the observations in
Which it played an important part.
Not a few Of his astronomical deter.
ninations of geographic positions have
TODD the test of later observations.
One day when he was travelling in
he vast desert plains he decided that
lis provisions were too heavy for his
'arty to carry, and yet every ounce OF
God was needed. He set to work to
educe the weight while preserving the
'utritive qualities.
He found that he could greatly re.
uce the weight of his salt pork by
it. He also discovered by ex.
fermentation that the -four he turned
ilo bISCuitS "elSEeu more Iuan IuS
The bright idea occurred to him of
meat biscuits. So he mixed
our with melted pork and timed beef
he biscuits turned out well and
'eighed only about one-half as much
) the meat and flour separately.
These are only a few of the many
avs in which his ingenuity and ready
contributed to the complete I
lccess of his enterprises. He was for \
any years Surveyor General of \
ueensland, and in his peaceful old age y
| Australia delights to honor him. a
eW York Sun. 7