Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia and Overland from Adelaide to King George's Sound in the Years 1840-1: Sent By the Colonists of South Australia, with the Sanction and Support of the Government: Including an Account of the Manners and Customs of the Aborigines and the State of Their Relations with Europeans — Volume 02Eyre, Edward John
History
Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia and Overland from Adelaide to King George's Sound in the Years 1840-1: Sent By the Colonists of South Australia, with the Sanction and Support of the Government: Including an Account of the Manners and Customs of the Aborigines and the State of Their Relations with Europeans — Volume 02
Eyre, Edward John
Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Ethnology -- Australia
Upon my return to Adelaide in 1841, after the Expedition had terminated,
other duties engrossed my time, and it was only after the publication of
Captain Frome's report, that my attention was again called to the
subject. Upon comparing my notes and bearings with the original sketch I
had made, I found that in the hurry and confusion of preparing it, whilst
travelling, I had laid down all the bearings and courses magnetic,
without allowing for the variation; nor can this error, perhaps, be
wondered at, considering the circumstances under which the sketch was
constructed.
At Mount Hopeless the variation was 4 degrees E., at Mount Arden it was 7
degrees 24 minutes E. Now if this variation be applied proportionably to
all the courses and bearings as marked down in the original chart,
commencing from Mount Arden, it will be found that Mount Serle will be
brought by my map very nearly in longitude to where Captain Frome places
it. [Note 30 at end of para.] Our latitudes appear to agree exactly.
The second point upon which some difference appears to exist
between Captain Frome's report and mine is the character of Lake Torrens
itself, which Captain Frome thought might more properly be called
a desert. This, it will be observed, is with reference to its south-east
extremity--a point I never visited, and which I only saw once from
Mount Serle; a point, too, which from the view I then had of it,
distant although it was, even at that time seemed to me to be
"apparently dry," and is marked as such in Arrowsmith's chart,
published from the sketch alluded to.
[Note 30: This has been done by Arrowsmith in the map which accompanies
these volumes;--to which Mr. Arrowsmith has also added Captain Frome's
route from the original tracings.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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