"We made up a list of game that had already been shot for ration purposes, nearly all by Hedley, who was our chief reliance as a hunter, and the following is the account up to 11th December:--50 parrots (corellas and galars), 350 ducks (black ducks, teal, whistling ducks, wood ducks and widgeons), 150 pigeons (principally flock), 11 geese, 4 turkeys, 8 spoonbills, 7 water hens, 2 shags, 1 emu, 1 native companion, making a total of 584 birds, and in addition we had consumed 100 fish. All of them were shot for actual food, nothing had been wantonly destroyed. We considerably added to this menu afterwards, including such choice delicacies as eagle hawk and frogs. Crows and hawks we carefully reserved to the last when all else should fail. The absence of kangaroos and other marsupials is a marked feature in this list, there being none on these wide-stretching downs." In January, 1879, the thunderstorms set in, and enabled the explorers to reach the line safely at Powell Creek Station. From here they travelled over known country to Port Darwin. This expedition had the effect of opening up a good deal of pastoral country, which is now nearly all stocked. As might have been expected, the party were most hospitably received at Palmerston, where the inhabitants, in addition to its chief feature of a railway survey, saw in this expedition one of the first steps to open up to the world the vast territory they possessed; for as yet the pastoral industry had been confined to one or two spirited attempts in the immediate neighbourhood of the goldfields, the great tableland at the back whereon there was so much valuable sheep country being, untouched. Western Australia now sent out another of the exploring parties, which form such a feature of her history. In 1879, Alexander Forrest led an expedition from De Grey River to the telegraph line. The party left Anderson's Station on the De Grey River, on the 25th February, and reached Beagle Bay on the 10th April, the country passed over being like most of the land in the immediate neighbourhood of the coast, poor and indifferent. From Beagle Bay they followed the coast round to the Fitzroy River, which empties into King's Sound, and journeyed up that river until they reached a range which gave the explorers some trouble; in fact, they spent six weeks of constant toil and trouble endeavouring to penetrate it.