REPORT OF ADVANCED PARTY.

April 3.

Mr. Lushington’s party came in at 12 o’clock this day, reporting as follows:  That they proceeded about eighteen miles from the camp upon a course of 195 degrees from the north, and the remaining half upon a course of 155 1/2 degrees; that the whole of their route lay over a country utterly impassable for horses owing to the steepness of the hills; that they crossed a great number of under-features at right angles to their route, between which lay small streams flowing away to the westward, and which under-features were so steep in their descent to the southward that, in going down, the men repeatedly fell:  both grass and water were however everywhere abundant; and they saw, in the spots where the grass was most luxuriant, the root which I found on the hill at our first encampment on the good land.  The last point they attained was a lofty hill which ran out from a range to the eastward, from which range sprang also all the under-features that they had crossed.  From this hill they had an extensive view to the northward, eastward, and westward.  The land they saw to the northward is laid down upon my map.

THEIR DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY.

To the eastward they saw nothing but ranges of hills, precisely resembling those that we had crossed since entering this mountainous district; and to the westward others of the same nature, but gradually falling in that direction, whilst on the other hand the land seemed to rise gently to the eastward, though they saw no very high hills in an easterly direction.  To the southward their view was impeded by a very high bluff point, distant six or seven miles, and a line of cliffs under which they conceived that a river or an opening of the sea may run, but if so, it could not be a stream of great magnitude.  Their view of the base of the cliff was however impeded by the under-features of the hill on which they stood.  They also noticed, as a very remarkable circumstance, that there were no signs of these mountains having been visited by the natives.  The first part of their route lay over an extensive plain, four miles in width, which bore no appearance of the great native conflagrations having ever reached it.  This was so generally the case that, when they halted, they were unable to obtain a sufficiency of firewood.  They saw a native dog of the regular Australian breed; kangaroos were abundant, but these as well as all other game were much less wild than any of the party had before observed.

The foregoing summary of the information brought back rests not on the report of any one individual but expresses the opinions of the party with regard to those points on which they were all agreed; and the only one as to which I have any distrust is that of the distance they went, which I believe to be overrated; having always found the estimates of every one of the party as to the daily distance travelled very erroneous, and sometimes more than doubled.  This indeed is a mistake well known to be of common occurrence, and very difficult to guard against in a new and wild country, and when I consider the diminished strength of the men’s pedestrian powers, and the weights they had to carry, I am disposed to calculate that the total direct distance they made did not exceed, if it equalled, twelve miles.