.

REACH THE MOORE RIVER.

20th September.

Crossed the watercourse, which seemed to be a branch of the Moore River,
and steered 163 degrees from 7.30 a.m. till 8.20, when the country
improved, with grassy hills and brown loam, with fragments of granite and
trap rock; the timber York-gum and jam-wattle. This description of
country continued till 12.15 p.m., when scrub again prevailed on
ironstone hills timbered with white-gum; at 2.20 entered a valley of
better character, with quartz and granite rocks. After crossing several
rocky ridges, at 3.20 reached the main branch of the Moore River, which
we crossed, and camped. This was the first place where the poisonous
gastrolobium was observed.

Latitude 31 degrees 39 seconds; longitude 116 degrees 13 minutes.

21st September.

At 7.30 a.m. followed the river upwards on a bearing of 130 degrees; at
8.0 passed a deserted sheep-station, the river coming from the north;
continued our course over broken ironstone ridges, timbered with
white-gum; at 10.0 the country became more level and sandy, and at 11.45
struck the road from Toodyay to Victoria Plains; followed the road
southerly till 4.5 p.m., and camped at a small spring.

Latitude 31 degrees 14 minutes 19 seconds; longitude 116 degrees 34
minutes.

CAPTAIN GREY'S REPORT OF GOOD COUNTRY CONFIRMED.

22nd September.

This morning an hour's ride brought us to Bolgart Spring, after an
absence of forty-seven days, during which we had travelled 953 miles,
traversing three degrees of latitude and nearly four and a half of
longitude.

The discovery of coal and country available for settlement on the coast
to the north of Swan River was deemed to be of such importance that the
Government dispatched Lieutenant Helpman in the colonial schooner
Champion to procure a sufficient quantity of the coal to admit of its
being practically tested as to quality, and also to ascertain what
facilities existed for its conveyance to a port for shipment. A volunteer
party, consisting of Lieutenant Irby, Dr. Meekleham, Messrs. Gregory and
Hazlewood, accompanied Lieutenant Helpman to Champion Bay, now the site
of Geraldton, and thence by land to the coal-seam on the Irwin River, a
distance of ninety miles, and brought down about half a ton of coal to
the vessel. This coal, though of fair quality and suitable for steam
purposes, proved, however, to be so remote from any suitable port for
shipment that it has hitherto not been available for