Since then more interest has been taken in exploration.

A second expedition was sent out to the eastward under Mr.Alexander Forrest in 1871, with the support of the Legislature and some of the settlers, and at present under the same auspices Mr.John Forrest is again exploring to the northward and eastward.

His route will be guided by circumstances, but it is not improbable that he may aim for the Central Australian telegraph line, and I am already anxiously expecting tidings of him.
13.

In 1870, with a vote I obtained from the Council, I engaged Mr.Henry Y.Brown as Government Geologist.

His geological sketch map and his researches, which he pushed in one instance far into the interior, have been of the greatest value; and it was with much regret that in 1872, owing to the disinclination evinced in the Legislature in the then straitened circumstances of the colony to expend money on a scientific department, that I was obliged to forego my desire of making it a permanent part of the establishment.
14.