1857. GASCOYNE RIVER.

The party under your direction, it is intended, should proceed northward as high as the Gascoyne River.

(The Gascoyne River flows into Shark Bay, in latitude 24 degrees 52 minutes South.)

After having examined thus the Gascoyne River you will proceed in a southerly direction and examine the river, as yet unnamed, about forty miles farther south, that flows into Shark's Bay, the mouth of which was seen by Captain Grey, and is placed by him at Point Long.

The whole party felt convinced of the necessity of returning, though with the greatest reluctance to do so, as it seemed to put an end to almost every hope of reaching the Gascoyne River.

*** GASCOYNE RIVER.

LEAVE THE MURCHISON FOR THE GASCOYNE RIVER.

Finding that the Murchison was leading us too much to the eastward, the object of the expedition being to reach the Gascoyne with as little delay as possible, we quitted the river on a north-north-east course for about eight miles over a tolerably grassy plain, in some parts open, with atriplex and samphire, and in others rather thickly studded with acacia and melaleuca.

To the north of our position the country rose into a succession of stony ridges thinly grassed and nearly destitute of trees; in the valleys the kangaroo grass was tolerably plentiful and quite greena sufficient evidence that we had now arrived within the influence of the rains that had produced the recent inundation, which gave us every hope of being able to push across the country intervening between this and the Gascoyne.

GASCOYNE RIVER.

The features of the country are generally very tame, with the exception of a prominent hill of considerable altitude, nearly twenty miles to the northward, to which we gave the name of Mount Gascoyne.

The Gascoyne here divides into several broad sandy channels, sometimes as much as a mile apart.

At twenty miles we ascended a sandy ridge of about sixty feet in height, from which we had our first view of Shark's Bay, Babbage Island, and the mouths of the Gascoyne, now only four miles distant.

Our horses having had a rest, the previous day being Sunday, we made an early start, and by noon halted on the Lyons River, a short distance above its confluence with the Gascoyne; its channel here was equal in magnitude and similar in appearance to the main river; a small stream was still flowing through the wide sandy bed, and gradually increased in volume for nearly eighty miles up the river.

To the east were several ranges of flat-topped hills, filling in the space between the Lyons and the great southern bend of the Gascoyne; while to the south, with the exception of a few very distant peaks, it appeared, as far as the eye could reach, to be an uniform plain of open but almost grassless scrub.

The country passed over during to-day had evidently been tolerably grassy, but the floods had been quite as destructive here as on the Gascoyne, the bed of the river and flats for half a mile on each side being mostly choked up or buried under fields of fine white sand, which had been brought down by the inundations.

Since quitting the mouth of the Gascoyne we had seen natives almost daily; to-night we again found ourselves in close proximity to a large encampment of them.

This channel we afterward found to be only one of several which formed the main branch of the Gascoyne.

The means of access to the Upper Gascoyne and Lyons is another important matter for consideration.

[Footnote 107: That of April, 1831, after the defeat of the Government on General Gascoyne's amendment] [Footnote 108: Lord Macaulay, "Miscellaneous Essays," ii., 330.]

Grey's reports left doubt as to the precise value of the country he traversed under such trying circumstances, but he is justly credited with the discovery of many rivers on the west coast the Grey, the Buller, the Chapman, the Greenough, the Arrowsmith, the Hutt, the Bowyer, and those important streams, the Murchison and the Gascoyne. 17.3.

Another expedition was organised to penetrate to the Gascoyne, and the leadership being naturally offered to Frank Gregory, was accepted by him.

Gregory kept down the south bank of the Gascoyne, and on the 12th of May passed a large tributary coming from the north, which he named the Lyons.

SEE Cecil, Edward Christian David Gascoyne.

CECIL, EDWARD CHRISTIAN DAVID GASCOYNE.