from the Murchison to the Swan, and his description of the country led ultimately to its settlement. His accuracy was much disputed by some, but subsequent knowledge has fully confirmed his report. It was in this year that Eyre arrived at King George's Sound, having lost all his party except his native guide, in his journey along the coast from Port Lincoln. Captain Stokes, in the Beagle, this year surveyed the Abrolhos and Champion bay, which had been previously entered by Lieut. Helpman in the Colonial schooner of that name.
The views of the early settlers had been directed principally to agricultural pursuits; but after this time, as it had appeared from the explorations of Governor Stirling and Mr. Roe and their followers, that a large portion of the interior country was more fitted for pasturage, their attention was turned more especially to that industry, and with this object Drummond and Scully made explorations to the Victoria Plains, as did Mr. Henry Landor to the South-East of Beverley, and in 1843, with Mr. H. Maxwell Lefroy, he made an excursion into the Lake district to the East of York, where their names and discoveries are still perpetuated.
During the years 1847-8, Dr. F. Von Sommer, who, having a reputation for knowledge in natural science, had been taken into the employ of Government, examined and reported on the geology of the Victoria, Moore River, and Avon districts, and the country about Capes Riche and Naturaliste. In the latter year the Surveyor General, accompanied by Mr. Augustus Gregory, started on a journey of exploration to the East of the Stirling Range. Gregory had just returned from an expedition to the Murchison, on which river he had discovered lead and copper lodes (thus first directing
