DESCRIPTION OF SOME NEW AUSTRALIAN ANIMALS, BY J. E. GRAY, ESQ. F.R.S. CATALOGUE OF REPTILES AND FISH, FOUND AT KING GEORGE'S SOUND, BY DEPUTY ASSISTANT COMMISSARY--GENERAL NEILL. THE REPTILES NAMED AND ARRANGED BY J. E. GRAY, ESQ., AND THE FISH BY DR. RICHARDSON DESCRIPTION AND FIGURES OF FOUR NEW SPECIES OF AUSTRALIAN INSECTS, BY ADAM WHITE, ESQ. M.E.S. DESCRIPTION OF TWO NEW INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS FROM AUSTRALIA, BY J. E. GRAY, ESQ. F.R.S. DESCRIPTION OF SOME NEW AUSTRALIAN LEPIDOPTEROUS INSECTS, BY EDWARD DOUBLEDAY, ESQ. F.R.S. etc. LIST OF BIRDS KNOWN TO INHABIT SOUTHERN AUSTRALIA, BY JOHN GOULD, ESQ. F.R.S. LIST OF PLATES--VOLUME I. Tenberry, with Wife and Child, drawn by G. Hamilton Departure of the Expedition drawn by G. Hamilton Opossum-hunting at Gawler Plains Native Graves Wylie (J. Neil) Plate I.--New Toads and Frogs Plate II.--New Frogs and new Bat Plate III.--New Insects Plate IV.--New Cray-fish Plate V.--New Shells Plate VI.--New Butterflies VOLUME I JOURNAL OF EXPEDITIONS IN CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN AUSTRALIA IN 1840. Chapter I. ORIGIN OF THE EXPEDITION--CONTEMPLATED EXPLORATION TO THE WESTWARD--MEETING OF THE COLONISTS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS ENTERED INTO FOR THAT PURPOSE--NOTES ON THE UNFAVOURABLE NATURE OF THE COUNTRY TO THE WESTWARD, AND PROPOSAL THAT THE NORTHERN INTERIOR SHOULD BE EXAMINED INSTEAD--MAKE AN OFFER TO THE GOVERNOR TO CONDUCT SUCH AN EXPEDITION--CAPTAIN STURT'S LECTURE--INTERVIEW WITH THE GOVERNOR, ARRANGEMENT OF PLANS--PREPARATION OF OUTFIT--COST OF EXPEDITION--NAME A DAY FOR DEPARTURE--PUBLIC BREAKFAST AND COMMENCEMENT OF THE UNDERTAKING. Before entering upon the account of the expedition sent to explore the interior of Australia, to which the following pages refer, it may perhaps be as well to advert briefly to the circumstances which led to the undertaking itself, that the public being fully in possession of the motives and inducements which led me, at a very great sacrifice of my private means, to engage in an exploration so hazardous and arduous, and informed of the degree of confidence reposed in me by those interested in the undertaking, and the sanguine hopes and high expectations that were formed as to the result, may be better able to judge how far that confidence was well placed, and how far my exertions were commensurate with the magnitude of the responsibility I had undertaken. I have felt it the more necessary to allude to this subject now, because I was in some measure at the time instrumental in putting a stop to a contemplated expedition to the westward, and of thus unintentionally interfering with the employment of a personal friend of my own, than whom no one could have been more fitted to command an undertaking of the kind, from his amiable disposition, his extensive experience, and his general knowledge and acquirements.