All geological and natural history specimens you can collect and preserve will be most valuable in perfecting information concerning the physical formation of the interior.
You will be good enough to get the agreement, forwarded with this, signed by the whole of the party.
I am, etc., MALCOLM FRASER, Surveyor-General.
DEPARTURE OF THE EXPEDITION.
On the 18th of March, 1874, the expedition quitted Perth.

Colonel Harvest, the Acting-Governor, wished us a hearty God-speed, which was warmly echoed by our friends and the public generally.

The Surveyor-General and a party accompanied us for some distance along the road.

Ten days afterwards we reached Champion Bay, where we intended to remain for three days, having settled to commence our journey on the 1st of April.

We had enough to do in preparing stores, shoeing horses, and starting a team with our heaviest baggage to a spot about fifty miles inland.