CONCLUSION OF THE EXPEDITION. 115 litated state in which the men were found they would all have perished. of I deeply regretted the death of poor Frederic Smith, who had come out from England expressly for the purpose of joining me, led solely by the spirit of enterprise, and not with any view of settling. He was the most youthful of the party, being only 18 years age, and thence was less capable than the others of bearing up against long continued want and fatigue, and the excessive heat of the climate, under which he gradually wasted away, until death terminated his sufferings. When aroused by danger, or stimulated by a sense of duty, he was as bold as a lion, whilst his manner to me was ever gentleness itself, as indeed it was to all.* Upon the final return of the expedition, a desire was expressed by some gentlemen of the colony of Western Australia, to remove Mr. Smith's remains to Perth; but upon mature reflection, I declined their friendly proposal, preferring rather to let him rest close by the spot where he died, having given the name of my ill-fated friend to a river which hides itself in the sandy plains, near where he fell so early a sacrifice to his gallant and enterprising spirit. * He was the eldest son of Octavius Smith, Esq., of Thames Bank, and grandson of the late William Smith, Esq., long known in political life as Member for Norwich. CHAPTER VI. SUMMARY OF DISCOVERIES. RIVERS AND MOUNTAIN RANGES DISCOVERED-DISTRICTS OF BABBAGE AND VICTORIA-MR. MOORE'S VOYAGE TO HOUT MAN'S ABROLHOS NORTH OF PERTH. AND PORT GREY -- DISTRICT TO THE HAVING now brought the narrative of my expedition along the western shores of Australia to a close, I shall here retrace in a brief summary the principal geographical discoveries to which it led. The country examined during this expedition lies between Cape Cuvier and Swan River, having for its longitudinal limits the parallel of 24° and that of 32° s. lat., and the expedition combined two objects; -the examination and nautical survey of such parts of the coast lying between these limits as were imperfectly known, and the exploration of such parts of the continent as might, on examination, appear worthy of particular notice. In the course of my explorations, ten rivers, which are, when considered with reference to the other known ones of Western Australia, of considerable importance, were discovered, some of them being larger than any yet found in the south-west of this continent; many smaller streams were also found. RIVERS DISCOVERED. The larger rivers I have named,— The Murchison, The Hutt, The Bowes, The Buller, The Chapman, The Greenough, The Irwin, The Arrowsmith, The Smith. 117 Two mountain ranges were discovered; one at the northern extremity of the Darling Range, and about thirty miles to the eastward of it, lofty and altogether differing in character from the Darling, which at this point, where its direction is nearly north and south, is called "Moresby's Flattopped Range." I have taken the liberty of naming this northern range after her most gracious Majesty, "The Victoria Range ;" and the extensive district of fertile country, extending from its base to the sea, and having a length of more than fifty miles in a north and south direction, I have also named the "Province of Victoria,"-trusting that her Majesty will not object to bestow her name upon one of the finest provinces in this her new, vast, and almost unknown empire; and which, protected in its very birth and infancy by her fostering hand, will, doubtless, ere long, attain to no mean destiny among the nations of the earth. The other range is thrown off in a westerly direction from the Darling Range; it is about forty miles in length from north to south, of a bare, sterile, and barren nature, and terminates seaward in Mount Perron and Mount Lesueur; to this range I have given the name of "Gairdner's Range:" it forms a very important feature in the geography of this part of Australia. Three extensive districts of good country were also found in the course of this expedition,the "Province of Victoria," before alluded to, the district of " Babbage," and another adjacent to Perth, to which I have not affixed a name. The district of Babbage is situated on and near the river Gascoyne, which stream discharges itself in the central part of the main that fronts Sharks Bay, and may, indeed, almost be regarded as the central point of the western coast of Australia; thus at once occupying the most commanding position in Sharks Bay, and one of the most interesting points on that coast; it is, moreover, the key to a very fine district, which is the only one in that vast inlet that appears well adapted to the purposes of colonization. Immediately to the south of the southern mouth of this river commences a line of shoals, which, at low water are nearly dry, extending to a distance of from two to four miles from the coast, and running with scarcely any intermission round the bay: except at high-water, it is, therefore, impossible to approach the greater part of the coast, even COAST OF SHARKS BAY. 119 in the smallest boat, unless by tracking it over those flats, which proceeding is not unattended with danger,-for, if it comes on to blow at all hard, owing to the shoalness of the water, the whole of them becomes a mass of broken billows. I feel convinced it was owing to this circumstance that the navigators, who had previously visited this bay, left so large a portion of its coast unexplored. The shoals in the vicinity of the mouth of this river, as well as those in the river itself, have many snags upon them; and on the coast of Bernier Island, opposite to the main, we found the remains of large trees which had been washed down the river, and had then been drifted across the bay. It was that circumstance which first convinced me that a large river existed hereabouts, and induced me so minutely to examine the coast. This occurrence of drift-wood in the neighbourhood of large rivers, is a circumstance unknown upon the south-western shores of this continent. I, however, observed it in Prince Regent's river and other rivers to the north, as well as in the Arrowsmith. This latter, however, however, is the most southern river in which I have remarked it, and it certainly is an evidence of the existence of timber of a much lighter description than has hitherto been known in this part of the continent. The southern mouth of the Gascoyne is, however, completely free from shoals, and has seven feet water |