Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/189

 The Railway-Builders ADELAIDE AND VICINITY i6- between South and Western Australia as to which should first accomplish this last huge task. The honors were fairly evenly divided. South Australia was first on the track. In August, 1872, Mr. Ernest Giles left Chambers Pillar with the intention of crossing the deserts of the west to the source of the River Murchison. Innumerable sandhills and long stretches of dreary unwatered scrub country forced him back after he had reached the neighborhood of the border. He made other attempts with like results ; a member of his party was lost and not again heard of Gosse, as with Giles, had terrible trials while seeking to penetrate an arid tract over the border in Western Australia, and he, too, was compelled to return to civilisation. Forrest was anxious to set forth from the Overland Telegraph Construction Party Camped at the Roper River western side, but his Government desired him to wait until the results of the South Australian expeditions should be learned. Major Warburton, a grey old warrior, was the first to travel from the overland telegraph line to the western coast. Horn in Cheshire in 1813, he entered the Royal Navy in 1826; and from 1831 to 1853 was in the East India Company's service, retiring with the rank of major. In the latter year he was appointed Commissioner of Police in South Australia, and, in 1869, Colonel-Commandant of the South Australian Volunteer Force. Between 1856 and 1874 he had charge of several exploring expeditions. L2