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SUMMARY OF DISCOVERIES.
RIVERS AND MOUNTAIN RANGES DISCOVERED.
Having now brought the narrative of my expedition along the western shores of Australia to a close I shall here retrace in a brief summary the principal geographical discoveries to which it led.
The country examined during this expedition lies between Cape Cuvier and Swan River, having for its longitudinal limits the parallel of 24 degrees and that of 32 degrees south latitude, and the expedition combined two objects: the examination and nautical survey of such parts of the coast lying between these limits as were imperfectly known, and the exploration of such parts of the continent as might on examination appear worthy of particular notice.
RIVERS DISCOVERED.
In the course of my explorations ten rivers, which are, when considered with reference to the other known ones of Western Australia, of considerable importance, were discovered, some of them being larger than any yet found in the south-west of this continent; many smaller streams were also found.
The larger rivers I have named: The Gascoyne, The Murchison, The Hutt, The Bowes, The Buller, The Chapman, The Greenough, The Irwin, The Arrowsmith, The Smith.
Two mountain ranges were discovered; one at the northern extremity of the Darling Range and about thirty miles to the eastward of it, lofty and altogether differing in character from the Darling, which at this point, where its direction is nearly north and south, is called Moresby's Flat-topped Range.
I have taken the liberty of naming this northern range, after her most gracious Majesty, The Victoria Range; and the extensive district of fertile country extending from its base to the sea, and having a length of more than fifty miles in a north and south direction, I have also named the Province of Victoria, trusting that her Majesty will not object to bestow her name upon one of the finest provinces in this her new, vast, and almost unknown empire; and which, protected in its very birth and infancy by her fostering hand, will doubtless ere long attain to no mean destiny among the nations of the earth.
The other range is thrown off in a westerly direction from the Darling Range; it is about forty miles in length from north to south, of a bare, sterile, and barren nature, and terminates seaward in Mount Perron and Mount Lesueur; to this range I have given the name of Gairdner's Range: it forms a very important feature in the geography of this part of Australia.
DISTRICTS OF BABBAGE AND VICTORIA.
Three extensive districts of good country were also found in the course of this expedition, the Province of Victoria, before alluded to, the district of Babbage, and another adjacent to Perth, to which I have not affixed a name.
The district of Babbage is situated on and near the river Gascoyne, which stream discharges itself in the central part of the main that fronts Shark Bay, and may indeed almost be recorded as the central point of the western coast of Australia; thus at once occupying the most commanding position in Shark Bay and one of the most interesting points on that coast; it is moreover the key to a very fine district which is the only one in that vast inlet that appears well adapted to the purposes of colonization.
COAST OF SHARK BAY.
Immediately to the south of the southern mouth of this river commences a line of shoals which at low-water are nearly dry, extending to a distance of from two to four miles from the coast and running with scarcely any intermission round the bay: except at high-water it is therefore impossible to approach the greater part of the coast, even in the smallest boat, unless by tracking it over those flats, which proceeding is not unattended with danger, for, if it comes on to blow at all hard, owing to the shoalness of the water, the whole of them becomes a mass of broken billows.

I feel convinced it was owing to this circumstance that the navigators who had previously visited this bay left so large a portion of its coast unexplored.
The shoals in the vicinity of the mouth of this river, as well as those in the river itself, have many snags upon them; and on the coast of Bernier Island, opposite to the main, we found the remains of large trees which had been washed down the river and had then been drifted across the bay.

It was that circumstance which first convinced me that a large river existed hereabouts, and induced me so minutely to examine the coast.
This occurrence of driftwood in the neighbourhood of large rivers is a circumstance unknown upon the south-western shores of this continent.

I however observed it in Prince Regent's River and other rivers to the north, as well as in the Arrowsmith.