Every hope they had entertained of a change for the better was shattered by an inspection of the country to which they had so laboriously penetrated.  The range, destined to be associated with so many subsequent important explorations, was a mass of naked rocks, and from the summit they could see nothing but the interminable scrub thickets, and in the distance the thin blue line of ocean.  Fortunately they found a little grass and water, which saved the lives of their animals.  They had discovered a coal seam at the mouth of the Murchison River, and now, on their return journey, they found another at the Fitzgerald River.  This was Roe’s longest and most important expedition, and it placed him in the front rank of Australian explorers.

Amongst the very early explorers who did as good work as the scanty opportunities permitted, was Ensign R. Dale, of the 63rd Regiment, who pushed east of the Darling Range.  Bannister, Moore, and Bunbury are other noteworthy names amongst those of the early discoverers.

17.2.  SIR GEORGE GREY.

[Illustration.  Sir George Grey.]

In 1837 an expedition in charge of Captain George Grey and Lieutenant Lushington was sent out from England to the Cape of Good Hope.  It was under instructions from Lord Glenelg, and was to procure a small vessel at the Cape to convey the party and their stores to the most convenient point in the vicinity of the Prince Regent’s River on the coast.  Once landed there, the party was to take such a course as would lead them in the direction of the great opening behind Dampier’s Land, where they were to make every endeavour to cross to the Swan River.

The schooner Lynher was chartered at the Cape, and on the 3rd of December, 1837, the party was landed at Hanover Bay, with large quantities of livestock, stores, seeds, and plants.  Whilst the schooner proceeded to Timor for ponies, Grey employed the time in forming a garden, building sheds for the stores, and in exploring the country in the neighbourhood of Hanover Bay.  On the 9th of December, he hoisted the British flag and went through the ceremony of taking possession.  On the 17th of January the Lynher returned, and nearly a month later Grey and his party, which now numbered twelve, started from the coast with twenty-six half-broken Timor ponies as baggage-carriers, and some sheep and goats.

The rainy season had now set in, and many of the stock succumbed almost at the outset, whilst their route proved a veritable tangle of steep spurs and deep ravines.  On the 11th of February they came into collision with the natives, and Grey was severely wounded in the hip with a spear.  When he had recovered sufficiently to be lifted on to one of the ponies, a fresh start was made, and on the 2nd of March his perseverance was rewarded by the discovery of a river which he named the Glenelg.  He followed the course of this river upwards, and reported the country as good, being well-grassed and watered.  Sometimes his route lay along the river’s bank; at other times by keeping to the foot of a sandstone ridge he was enabled to avoid detours around many wearisome bends.