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Appendix No. 1.

EXTRACTS of an account (published in the "Daily News" of Friday the 26th of December,) by one of the officers of Her Majesty's ship "Torch," of the Rivers Albert and Victoria, as observed in a recent expedition between the months of June and September, 1856.

ALBERT.

OF the Albert river, and the country through which it flows, it would be but misleading to speak in favourable terms. Till just upon its source we found no fresh water, and when fifty miles from the sea the water was, at high tide, as salt as at the mouth. A much more appropriate term would be a salt-water creek than a river, and during its whole course we could not discover on either bank a single fresh-water stream running into it. The country a few yards from the bank is barren and parched up; and, from the scarcity of variety in the vegetable productions, cannot at any time present a very much improved appearance. The soil bears no evidence of being rich, and the firm conviction that we all arrived at was that the country round here would never be of use for the purposes of colonization, and in this view Lieutenant Chimmo joined. Independently of its being ill adapted for agricultural undertakings, the climate is, we believe, utterly prejudicial to the health of Europeans. During three-quarters of the year not a drop of rain falls, and the heat is excessive, with no wind. The thermometer ranged with us about 120° Farenheit, and during the other three months, while the north-west monsoon blows, this country seems to be the sport of gales of wind and deluges of rain, judging from the enormous ravines and gullies which every where run down to the river choked with immense trees and whole masses of earth and stone.

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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LTC.O. 885

VICTORIA.

The shores of the Victoria river are much more picturesque than those of the Albert, being much bolder in their outline. Abrupt masses of hills come down to the water's edge, and at every bend in the stream beautiful glimpses were obtained of striking scenery.

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Though we penetrated to 100 miles from the mouth of the river, and to within a short distance of its rise, we found no fresh water, except in a spring at Gregory's Camp; and though alligators were numerous, there was the same air of sterility and drought, and an absence of animal life, which makes these rivers look like portions of a continent never yet peopled by man, or undergoing the gradual process of preparation,

During the whole of the ascent we did not see one native, though a few came down one day, and sat on the river bank abreast of the anchorage of the "Torch." Perhaps they avoided us, as dreading a renewal of the crusade kept up against them by the exploring party. The tides are fearfully rapid up this river, and in the Cambridge Gulf, rising to the height of twenty to twenty-five feet. On the "Torch" attempting to leave the river, she grounded on a spot where, in 1841, there were three fathoms of water, and at low-water her keel was seven feet above low-water mark, though the next tide she floated again. This peculiarity will always render this river impracticable for sailing-ships, as nothing but a steamer should attempt its ascent, The Tom Tough" dragged for twenty-eight days over the rocks about half-way up, and had to be hove down and caulked; and the Torch” broke one anchor-fluke, and the tides once took out fifty fathoms of chain before we could bring up. These circumstances, together with the absence of land adapted for agricultural pursuits, and the great heat, combine to make the Victoria river worthless for the British colonist; and, indeed, all who are capable of judging, concur in the opinion that the whole of North Australia above the latitude of 20" south, will never be made to yield soil capable of cultivation.

During the time we lay at anchor in the Victoria river, the thermometer stood at 130° in the sun; and when the south-east trades blew, which prevail here during three-fourths of the year, the wind, coming over such a vast extent of heated and acid country, was

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