attention to the mineral wealth of the Champion Bay district), as also the small harbor which bears his name; and on the Irwin River his brother, Mr. F. H. Gregory, had found what has since been. commonly known as the coal seam, and this, with the reports of Von Sommer, led to the supposition that there were vast deposits of that mineral extending &om the Irwin along the base of the Darling Range.
Surveyor General Roe, descending the Palinup, crossed to Cape Riche, and, returning on his tract to the North-East, reached Bremer Range, whence, directing his course to the South and East, and crossing the sources of the Fitzgerald and Phillips Rivers, he proceeded as far as Russell Range, near Cape Arid, at the Western extremity of the Great Australian Bight; and returning to Cape Riche, he found on the middle course of the Phillips, and lower course of the Fitzgerald, deposits similar to those found by Gregory on the Irwin, and in consequence, another discovery of coal was proclaimed. On reaching Cape Riche, he made a direct course to Bunbury and thence to Perth. The same year Helpman and Gregory returned by sea and land to make further examination of the reported coal measures, but the result was not satisfactory. They were again very carefully examined in 1875, by the Rev. C. G. Nicolay, who was sent by the Government for that purpose, but without the least indication of coal measures being perceptible.
It will appear, from this brief record, that before the year 1850 the coast of Western Australia, from Sharks Bay to the Great Australian Bight, had been explored, and a general knowledge obtained of the basins of the rivers from the Moore to the Phillips. The names of the early explorers, by whose labors this knowledge was
