Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/34

 8        ADELAIDE AND VICINITY    The Forerunners for the growth of wool, and the Governors there- fore desired more infor- mation concerning inland territory. In 1818, Oxley traversed leagues upon leagues of promising coun- try south-west of Sydney, and others followed him. On November 17, 1824, Hume and Ho veil emerged from among the woods south of Sydney, and saw a great waterway — at once named the Hume — at a place now known as Albury. Subsequent investigation proved that this one fam- ous river in Australia had its source in the snowy peaks of the Australian Alps, and that as it trickled down the eminences it was joined by thousands of little streams, making an ener- getic and vital current, which set out on a tortuous journey of over 2,000 miles acro.ss a part of the continent. It was a streak of silver on a green and grey and yellow face. In its sinuous course among gumtrees, through beautiful valleys, over hot. baked plains, and under hills and high cliffs, it enriched millions of acres of .soil, and was joined by other rivers draining thousands of miles of fertile land north and south. Hut Hume and Hovell only sighted a few miles of this river. Captain Sturt, with Hume, set out for the south-western territory, and explored the Murrumbidgee, the Macquarie, the Lachlan. and the Darling. In the second expedition in 1829-30 a boat was launched on the Murrumbidgee, the course of which the explorers followed to where it entered a nobler river. Sturt and his men put their little craft into the centre of the new stream, and then with lifted hats and light hearts they celebrated the occasion with enthusiastic cheering ; and thus the English tongue sounded for the first time in this part of the continent. It was the same river that Hume and Hovell had discovered further to the east, and Captain .Sturt named it the Murray, after Sir Ceorge Murray, then head of the Colonial I )e[)artment. The problem to be solved was the ultimate destination of the rivers flowing Captain Flinders