Sir T.Elder ADELAIDE AND VICINITY 283 and Moonta Mines, the firm of Elder, Smith, & Co. will always be remembered as the financiers who supplied the necessary ca]:>ital for the initial working of the now famous leases which have contributed so laroely to the material progress of South Australia. In the North-East, and also at Port Lincoln and Franklin Harbor, the firm sank considerable money in testing the mineral resources. Through the commercial pursuits of Elder, Smith, & Co., and by his private enter- prise. Sir Thomas became possessed of a fortune, in the distribution of which he was a great benefactor. Foremost in national importance were his services to exploration and geographical science. In 1861 ho introduced camels for exploration and commercial purposes; and in 1872 he defrayed the cost of a preliminary exploration by the veteran Major Warburton. In 1873, after the Government had abandoned a proposal to equip an overland party. Sir Thomas Elder, in conjunction with Sir W. W. Hughes, provided the whole of the funds for the dispatch of Warburton. This expedition is noteworthy, for it was to pass over the deserts separating South Australia from the western coast, and it greatly dispelled the erroneous impression of the existence of a large sheet of water in interior Australia. It was on April 15, 1873, that Major Warburton, with 17 camels and six men, including a native named Charlie, set out from Alice .Springs on their dreary journey, and, after terrible privations, reached Oakover River, on the north-west coast of Western Australia, on December 4, 1873. Thus was the continent bisected from south to north, and from east to west. Warburton owed his life to the camels, the faithfulness of his party, and to the ingenuity of the native boy Charlie. When, in 1873, W. C. Gosse sought to cover the deserts south of Warburton's track, .Sir Thomas fitted out his expedition with camels; but Gosse had to turn back after he had reached the Western Australian border. Other parties were supplied by .Sir Thomas with camels about this time, the chief amongst them being that of the intrepid Ernest Giles, the third explorer to cross the central deserts to the western seaboard. On August 24, 1875, Giles left Ouldabinna, and struck a south-west course for Perth, a route still further south of -Sir John Forrest (1874) and Warburton. Giles staked his life on the issue ; and again the camels were a supreme factor, for on one occasion they travelled 325 miles without water. With the same animals Giles returned to .South Australia by a more northerly route. But Sir Thomas did not rest satisfied with the discoveries of these pathfinders. His firm had large tracts of other country explored by men whose journals do not find a place in history. Some 2,000 miles of territory near the Queensland border were opened up, beside other immense areas in the centre of South Australia. The last large exploration sent out by Sir Thomas Elder was in 1891 — that led by David Lindsay. This was under the auspices of the Royal Geographical Society, of whom it was desired by the noble patron that scientific men of reputation "should form a conspicuous feature of this party, whose first duty was to attempt to traverse the unknown regions in North and Western Australia between the tracks of F"orrest, Giles, Go.sse, and Warburton." On April 22, 1891, Lindsay and his men, with 40 camels and six months' provisions, left Adelaide for the Peake. On reaching the interior it was found that there had been a long drought, which, as was afterwards seen, severely militated against the general success of the explorers. Despite this, areas of new country were passed through, and a track to Dundas in Western Australia was inspected and marked down as a mineral belt, which soon after became famous by reason T2
