The publisher of this book utilises modern printing technologies as well as photocopying processes for reprinting and preserving rare works of literature that are out-of-print or on the verge of becoming lost. This book is one such reprint.

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. Early explorations continued.—Discovery of Victoria River.— Captain Start's journey. In the meanwhile the work of exploration had been progressing in the north. H.M. surveying ship " Beagle " discovered at the head of King's Sound a fine fresh-water river, named the Fitzroy, and her boats traced its course for some twenty miles, returning only when their fai'ther progress was stopped by clusters of islands and debris, which choked the channel. Soon afterwards the officers of the same vessel, while examining the coast between Melville Island and the mainland, found another river of considerable size named the Adelaide. At the head of Queen's Channel the features of the coast gave promise of inland waters, and a party were despatched to verify this. Captain Stokes, then a lieutenant in the "Beagle," thus describes the excursion:—" Our preparationswere rapidly made, a few days' provisions were stowed away in the boat, and as the western sky glowed red in the expiring light of day, the gig was running before a north-west breeze, for the chasm in the distant highland, bearing S. 20 E. twelve miles from the ship. As we advanced, the separations in the range became more marked and distinct, as long as the light served us, but presently darkness wrapped all in impenetrable mystery. Still we ran on, keeping close to the eastern lowland, and just as we found that the course we held no longer appeared to follow the direction of the channel, out burst the moon above the hills in all its glory, shedding a silvery stream of light upon the water, and revealing to our anxious eyes the long-looked-for river, rippling and swelling, as it forced its way between high rocky ranges. Under any circumstances the discovery would have been delightful, but the time, the previous darkness,...