From this point they soon reached the settled districts of South Australia in safety.
Although this journey of Forrest's cannot strictly be called an exploring expedition, inasmuch as he repeated the journey made under such terrible conditions by Eyre travelling in the opposite direction, yet it is of first-rate importance, inasmuch as, owing to the greater facilities he enjoyed, he was able to pronounce a more final verdict than Eyre was able to give.

Forrest found that the gloomy thicket was a fringe confined to the immediate coast-line.

On every occasion that he penetrated it, he came on good pastoral land beyond.

He writes:-- "The country passed over between longitude 126 degrees 24 minutes and 128 degrees 30 minutes East as a grazing country far surpasses anything I have ever seen.

There is nothing in the settled portion of Western Australia equal to it, either in extent or quality; but the absence of permanent water is a great drawback...The country is very level, with scarcely any undulation, and becomes clearer as you proceed north." On his arrival in Adelaide he received a hearty welcome, and a similar reception was accorded him on his return to Perth.