from the experience I have had in travelling through the
Continent of Australia for the last twenty-two years, and also from the
description that other explorers have given of the different portions
they have examined in their journeys, I have no hesitation in saying,
that the country that I have discovered on and around the banks of the
Adelaide River is more favourable than any other part of the continent
for the formation of a new colony. The soil is generally of the richest
nature ever formed for the benefit of mankind: black and alluvial, and
capable of producing anything that could be desired, and watered by one
of the finest rivers in Australia. This river was found by Lieutenant
Helpman to be about four to seven fathoms deep at the mouth, and at one
hundred and twenty miles up (the furthest point he reached) it was found
to be about seven fathoms deep and nearly one hundred yards broad, with a
clear passage all the way up. I struck it about this point, and followed
it down, encamping fifteen miles from its mouth, and found the water
perfectly fresh, and the river broader and apparently very deep; the
country around most excellent, abundantly supplied with fresh water,
running in many flowing streams into the Adelaide River, the grass in
many places growing six feet high, and the herbage very close--a thing
seldom seen in a new country. The timber is chiefly composed of
stringy-bark, gum, myall, casurina, pine, and many other descriptions of
large timber, all of which will be most useful to new colonists. There is
also a plentiful supply of stone in the low rises suitable for building
purposes, and any quantity of bamboo can be obtained from the river from
two to fifty feet long. I measured one fifteen inches in circumference,
and saw many larger. The river abounds in fish and waterfowl of all
descriptions. On my arrival from the coast I kept more to the eastward of
my north course, with the intention of seeing further into the country. I
crossed the sources of the running streams before alluded to, and had
great difficulty in getting more to the west. They take their rise from
large bodies of springs coming from extensive grassy plains, which proves
there must be a very considerable underground drainage, as there are no
hills of sufficient elevation to cause the supply of water in these
streams. I feel confident that, if a new settlement is formed in this
splendid country, in a few years it will become one of the b