Mr.Gregory attempted, from the north, to ascend the Victoria River, but only reached the upper edge of the great desert.

Dr.
Leichardt, who had previously travelled from Moreton Bay, on the eastern coast, to Port Essington on the northern, attempted to cross from the eastern to the western shores, and has not since been heard of.

Mr.Eyre made a journey, memorable for the misfortunes which attended it, and the sufferings he endured, from Adelaide round the head of the great bay, or Bight of Southern Australia, to Perth, the capital of Western Australia; and much more recently Colonel Egerton Warburton succeeded in crossing from the telegraphic line to the western coast across the northern part of the great wilderness, nearly touching the farthest point reached by Mr.Gregory.
EYRE'S JOURNEY.
It was in the year 1840, only four years after the foundation of South Australia, that the first great attempt to discover a route from Adelaide to the settlements in Western Australia was made.

There then resided in South Australia a man of great energy and restless activity, Edward John Eyre, whose name was afterwards known throughout the world in connexion with the Jamaica outbreak of 1865, and the measures which, as Governor, he adopted for repressing it.

It was anticipated that a profitable trade between the colonies might be carried on if sheep and other live-stock could be transferred from one to the other in a mode less expensive than was afforded by the sea route between Adelaide and the Swan River.